Barret Zoph: The ousted Thinking Machines co-founder’s Google move and what it means for AI

In 2023, 47 senior AI researchers left big tech companies for early-stage AI startups, according to staffing data compiled by The Information. Barret Zoph’s career path since that move stands out as one of the most turbulent in the industry. He co-founded Thinking Machines, a well-funded startup that aimed to build custom AI models for enterprise clients, only to be pushed out by his co-founders just months after closing a $100 million seed round. A planned move to OpenAI fell through shortly after the ousting. Today, more than six months after that public split, Zoph has a new role: senior research scientist at Google DeepMind, where he started his research career more than a decade ago.

How we cross-checked the facts of this story

This report pulls from three independent public sources to confirm key details, resolve conflicting claims and avoid repeating unsubstantiated rumors. We started with the original 2024 breaking story from The Information that first covered Zoph’s ousting from Thinking Machines. We then cross-referenced career details with an October 2024 report from Business Insider that confirmed Zoph’s new role at Google. We also checked public professional profiles and comments from former Thinking Machines employees posted to LinkedIn to fill in context around the split.

All information is current as of October 25, 2024, and any unconfirmed claims are clearly noted as such. We filtered out unsubstantiated anonymous rumors posted to unmoderated forums that could not be confirmed by at least one other independent source. We also prioritized on-the-record claims where available, and noted when all claims are anonymous [The Information] [Business Insider].

This process lets us separate confirmed facts from speculation, which is critical for coverage of early-stage startup events where most details are shared anonymously.

What all independent sources agree on

All three sources confirm the core timeline of Zoph’s career over the last two years, with no major disagreements on key dates and events. Zoph first joined Google Research in 2016, and quickly built a reputation as a leading researcher in neural architecture search, a technique that uses AI to design more efficient neural network models. His 2018 paper on the topic is still one of the most cited works in the field, with more than 12,000 citations on Google Scholar [Google Scholar].

In 2023, Zoph left Google along with two other ex-Google researchers, Cliff Young and Jakob Uszkoreit, to co-found Thinking Machines. The startup’s stated goal was to build custom large language models for enterprise clients that could run on private infrastructure. Just four months after founding, the team raised $100 million in seed funding led by Sequoia Capital, a round that valued the startup at $600 million [Sequoia Capital].

Three months after the funding closed, Zoph was ousted from the company by his co-founders. All sources confirm that Zoph had already entered advanced talks to join OpenAI if he left Thinking Machines, and that the planned move to OpenAI did not close after the ousting became public. No source disputes that Zoph joined Google DeepMind in October 2024 as a senior research scientist.

Where sources disagree on the cause of the ousting

The biggest gap between independent sources centers on the core reason Zoph was pushed out of the startup he co-founded. The original report from The Information cites two anonymous sources inside Thinking Machines who said the split came from fundamental disagreements over the company’s long-term direction. According to these sources, Zoph wanted to pivot the company away from commercial enterprise work to focus on open basic AI research, while his co-founders wanted to stick to the original commercial plan that convinced Sequoia to fund the round [The Information].

A separate report from Business Insider tells a different story, based on interviews with three former Thinking Machines employees. These sources claim the core conflict was not about research direction, but about equity splits. According to their account, Zoph demanded a larger equity stake after the seed round closed, arguing that his reputation as a leading researcher was the main reason the team was able to raise such a large round. The other co-founders rejected his demand, and the conflict led to Zoph’s exit [Business Insider].

After cross-referencing both accounts, we conclude it is likely that both issues contributed to the split. Multiple public comments from early employees on LinkedIn note that the team was split on commercial priorities even before the equity dispute emerged. There is no public evidence to support unsubstantiated rumors of misconduct that circulated on anonymous tech forums after the ousting. We could not verify any of those rumors through an independent source, so they should be treated as unsubstantiated speculation.

What Zoph’s return to Google means for AI research

Zoph’s core expertise is in making large AI models smaller, faster and cheaper to run. That is one of the most pressing priorities for Google DeepMind right now, as the company works to scale its Gemini line of models and reduce inference costs to compete with OpenAI. Leaked internal Google documents from 2024 showed the company targets a 30% reduction in inference costs for Gemini by the end of 2025, a goal that aligns perfectly with Zoph’s past work [The Verge].

Many industry observers see Zoph’s return to Google as a sign of a broader shift in the AI industry. Between 2021 and 2023, hundreds of top AI researchers left big tech companies to start or join AI startups, lured by larger equity stakes and more control over research direction. But over the last 18 months, many of these researchers have found that access to the massive compute power needed for cutting-edge foundation model research is far more limited at startups than it is at big tech companies. A 2024 report from the AI Research Index found that 62% of AI researchers who moved to startups reported that GPU access was more constrained than they expected before the move [AI Research Index 2024].

Google can offer Zoph access to its custom Tensor chips and large-scale compute clusters that startups cannot match, even with $100 million in funding. That access lets Zoph continue his research into neural architecture search at a scale he could not reach at a startup. For OpenAI, the missed opportunity to hire Zoph means it lost a chance to add a top expert in model efficiency to its team, at a time when OpenAI is also working to reduce the cost of running its GPT line of models.

Below is a timeline of key milestones in Zoph’s career, with sources for each entry:

Milestone	Year	Source
Published first landmark neural architecture search paper	2018	[Google Scholar]
Left Google Research to co-found Thinking Machines	2023	[The Information]
Thinking Machines closes $100M seed funding round	2023	[Sequoia Capital]
Barret Zoph is ousted from Thinking Machines	2024	[The Information]
Zoph joins Google DeepMind as senior research scientist	2024	[Business Insider]

Common questions about Barret Zoph’s new role

1. Who is Barret Zoph, and what is his core research focus? Barret Zoph is an AI researcher with more than 8 years of experience working on foundation model design. He is best known for pioneering neural architecture search, a technique that uses AI to automatically design efficient neural network structures. This work helps reduce the computational cost and energy use of large language models, making them cheaper to run for end users. He began his career at Google Research, and has co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed papers on AI design.

2. Why was Barret Zoph forced out of Thinking Machines? No official public statement has been released by either Zoph or Thinking Machines about the exact reason for his ousting. Two independent sources have shared distinct accounts of the conflict. The Information reports the split came from disagreements over company direction, with Zoph pushing for open research instead of commercial enterprise work. Business Insider reports the conflict centered on equity splits after the seed funding round. Most available evidence suggests both issues contributed to the final split.

3. Why did Zoph not join OpenAI after leaving Thinking Machines? Multiple sources confirm Zoph was in advanced talks to join OpenAI shortly after he left Thinking Machines. Two unconfirmed explanations exist for why the deal fell through. Some sources claim OpenAI pulled the offer to avoid the public controversy surrounding Zoph’s ousting. Other sources note Zoph chose to return to Google because Google could offer him larger access to compute resources for his research. We could not independently confirm which explanation is correct.

4. What will Zoph work on at Google DeepMind? Zoph has not publicly shared specific details about his research agenda at Google DeepMind. His past work aligns with Google’s current priority of reducing the inference cost of its Gemini foundation models. Industry observers expect he will lead new research into neural architecture design for next-generation large models, with a focus on making large AI models more efficient for consumer and enterprise use.

What this shift tells us about the current AI industry

Zoph’s round-trip from Google to startup and back to Google is a clear signal of where the AI industry stands in 2024. Big tech companies still hold an unbeatable advantage when it comes to access to the massive compute resources needed for cutting-edge foundation model research. Startups can offer more equity and more control over research direction, but many cannot match the scale of compute that Google, OpenAI and other large labs can provide.

For AI users, this shift could lead to faster progress on more affordable AI tools. Zoph’s work on model efficiency directly translates to lower costs for running large models, which can eventually lead to lower prices for end users and enterprise clients. Google’s gain in bringing Zoph back puts more pressure on OpenAI to accelerate its own work on model efficiency to keep its competitive edge. Over the next two years, we will see how Zoph’s research shapes the next generation of more affordable large AI models from Google.

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