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A co-founder of a Silicon Valley AI startup valued at $12 billion was fired after months of internal turmoil that reportedly began with an undisclosed workplace relationship and later escalated into disputes over leadership and control.
Barret Zoph, the co-founder and chief technology officer of Thinking Machines Lab, was dismissed last Wednesday following a contentious meeting with CEO Mira Murati after she had raised concerns about his conduct, trust and performance, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Zoph reportedly admitted to Murati that he had a romantic relationship with a junior colleague that began while they were both working for their previous employer, OpenAI.
Murati had suspected the relationship as early as last summer, The Journal reported. Zoph initially denied the relationship, according to the article.
But weeks later, he and the woman reportedly acknowledged the relationship to Murati.
Shortfly after the disclosure, she left the company and returned to OpenAI.
While the woman was junior to Zoph, she did not report to him, The Journal said.
Zoph told the newspaper that he was fired after Murati learned that he was negotiating with another company about a role.
“Thinking Machines Lab terminated my employment only after it learned I would be leaving the company. Full stop,” he told The Journal.
“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.”
Like the woman he with whom he reportedly had a relationship, Zoph went back to OpenAI. She was not named in the article.
The relationship fallout later gave way to deeper disputes over leadership and authority.
According to The Journal, Zoph and two colleagues confronted Murati in a meeting earlier this month, saying they disagreed with the company’s direction and pushing for Zoph to be given greater control over technical decision-making — including having senior executives report to him instead of Murati.
Murati pushed back, citing concerns about Zoph’s productivity over previous months, The Journal reported.
Executives had observed a sharp drop in his engagement after he was stripped of managerial duties, including significantly reduced activity on Slack, the company’s main way of communicating internally.
Thinking Machines Labs co-founder Luke Metz and founding researcher Sam Schoenholz also left the company and returned to OpenAI, according to The Journal.
In October, another co-founder, Andrew Tulloch, left the startup to return to Meta Platforms.
Thinking Machines Lab was founded last year by Murati and a group of former OpenAI executives and researchers. It quickly became one of Silicon Valley’s most closely watched AI startups.
The company raised a record-breaking $2 billion seed round at a $12 billion valuation, pitching investors on its ambition to build more customizable and transparent artificial-intelligence systems.
But the departures have left the startup with just three of its original six founders less than a year after launch, underscoring the intense competition for elite AI talent and the fragility of even the best-funded newcomers.
Murati, who briefly held the title of interim CEO of OpenAI following the short-lived ouster of Sam Altman, did not answer repeated requests for comment from The Journal. OpenAI declined to comment on the hires to the publication.