Barret Zoph, a co‑founder of the AI startup Thinking Machines and a former OpenAI employee, has rejoined Google to take a vice president of research role.
Timeline of recent moves
- Zoph spent two years at OpenAI before leaving in October 2024 to co‑found Thinking Machines with Mira Murati; Murati had left OpenAI a month earlier.
- In January, Zoph and fellow Thinking Machines co‑founder Luke Metz departed the startup and returned to OpenAI.
- That return was short; Zoph spent only five months back at OpenAI, where he was assigned to lead AI enterprise sales. He left OpenAI in June.
New position at Google
According to a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Zoph has taken a position as vice president of research at Google, a company where he has previously worked. A Google spokesperson said: “We look forward to Barret returning to Google and bringing his RL and post‑training expertise to Gemini.”
Why this matters
The move is another example of rapid executive turnover in the AI industry. Turnover has been especially noticeable at OpenAI over the past several months: despite preparing for an IPO and being a major player in the sector, the organization has lost a number of senior staff in roughly the last eight months, including executives in key operational and infrastructure roles, prompting questions about leadership stability.
Next steps
TechCrunch contacted OpenAI and Google for additional comment, but no further details were provided. Observers will likely watch Google’s public updates and press communications for more information on Zoph’s role with Gemini and his responsibilities as vice president of research.
