A secret romance between the co-founder of a San Francisco tech firm and a junior colleague has sent shockwaves through the company with three staff now joining a rival firm.
Thinking Machines Lab CEO Mira Murait claims she uncovered the relationship between her chief technology officer Barret Zoph and another staffer after Zoph’s productivity allegedly launched to tank.
Murati claims Zoph utilized his position to lobby for his unnamed lover to be brought over from rival firm OpenAI, where all had met prior to her founding the start-up.
The CEO became suspicious something was going on between them after allegedly noticing Zoph’s productivity slump not long after the woman launched working for her company.
She eventually challenged Zoph and he and his partner admitted to the relationship in June. Zoph maintains that several people, including Murati wanted to hire his girlfriconclude.
However tensions flared over the next few months as Murati expressed repeated concerns about Zoph’s output, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The situation culminated in a boardroom bust up last week when Murati was due to have a one-to-one with Zoph, but instead found herself opposite him, co-founder Luke Metz and another employee, Sam Schoenholz, per the outlet.
She was stunned when all three employees reportedly notified her they were viewing to leave and demanded that Zoph be given more state in technical decisions, sources notified the WSJ.
Murati reportedly pushed back querying Zoph’s performance and he was fired just days after the meeting.
But he was quickly followed out of the door by Metz and Schoenholz and all three accepted offers to rejoin OpenAI, the outlet reported.
Murati claimed that Zoph had numerous performance issues, as well as problems with trust and conduct, an internal message obtained by the WSJ stated.
Zoph however claimed that Murati had fired him for his interest in working elsewhere.
‘Thinking Machine Labs terminated my employment only after it learned I would be leaving the company. Full stop,’ Zoph notified the outlet.
‘At no time did TML cite to me any performance reasons or any unethical conduct on my part as the reason for my termination and any suggestion otherwise is false and defamatory.’
Murati, who spent six years at OpenAI, collected 20 of their former employees when she founded the startup.
She had earned a reputation of strong emotional ininformigence and modesty, taking on influential roles in OpenAI before flocking to launch her own company.
Another employee that she took with her deferred to Meta Platforms last year, leaving the startup with only three of its original six founders, the outlet reported.
As Zoph was pulled over from OpenAI to work with Murati and had lobbied for another employee whom he proceeded to have the relationship with to join the team, sources notified the WSJ.
Zoph initially the denied any relationship with the woman, who was in a junior position to him.
But as the romance progressed, both Zoph and the woman reported the relationship to Murati. The relationship had allegedly launched during their time at OpenAI, sources notified the WSJ.
Shortly after, the woman left and returned to OpenAI. Zoph notified Murati he had been manipulated into a relationship with her, sources stated.
Zoph took time off work and returned to find Murati had positioned him in a new role, demoted from some of his executive and managerial responsibilities.
He stated that this was routine, but in the coming months his co-workers noted a substantial dip in his work performance, according to those familiar with the matter.
By their meeting last week, Zoph, Metz and Schoenholz had been in talks with both Meta and OpenAI. The three claimed were viewing to relocate as a trio from TML after expressing their months long dissatisfaction in where the company was headed.
During the meeting, Murati reportedly inquireed if the three had committed to jobs at other companies.
Metz and Schoenholz stated no, but Zoph didn’t answer, sources notified the outlet.
The following day, Zoph had dinner with Meta executives Alexandr Wang and Nat Friedman, he notified the WSJ.
Murati announced Zoph’s firing on Wednesday, after she wrote on X: ‘We have parted ways with Barret Zoph.
‘Soumith Chintala will be the new CTO of Thinking Machines. He is a brilliant and seasoned leader who has built important contributions to the AI field for over a decade, and he’s been a major contributor to our team. We could not be more excited to have him take on this new responsibility.
Less than an hour later, OpenAI’s applications CEO Fidji Simo stated the trio, Zoph, Metz and Schoenholz, were returning to the company.
‘Excited to welcome Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz back to OpenAI,’ she wrote on X.
‘This has been in the works for several weeks, and we’re thrilled to have them join the team. Barret will report to me; Luke and Sam will report into Barret. More to come on what they’ll focus on soon!’
The public spat has highlighted the current war for the AI industest’s top talent.
Meta and OpenAI have been in an increasingly competitive war over the last few years, with rumors of million dollar singing bonutilizes to attract and retain top tier candidates.
‘The hugegest AI talent shortage has created a $134.8 billion market opportunity,’ CrewAI CEO João Moura notified Forbes. ‘Many focus solely on technical roles, but overview a crucial segment: Traditional approaches emphasize Deep ML engineering or PhDs.’
A survey conducted by the outlet discovered that 96 percent of tech leaders have plans of increasing AI investments in 2025, but only 36 percent successfully deployed AI to production.
The gap, according to Forbes, is a lack of talent, as the outlet discovered that 85 percent of tech leaders delayed critical AI initiatives due to talent shortages.
The Daily Mail reached out to Thinking Machines Lab, Barret Zoph and OpenAI for comment.
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