Thinking Machines Lab Poaches Meta's Top AI Talent Including PyTorch Co-Founder as Bidirectional Talent War Intensifies
Summary
Thinking Machines Lab is aggressively poaching Meta's top AI talent, including PyTorch co-founder Soumith Chintala, as a fierce bidirectional talent war intensifies between the two companies, fueled by TML's $12 billion valuation and a major cloud deal with Google for cutting-edge Nvidia chips.
Key Points
- Thinking Machines Lab (TML) is aggressively recruiting talent from Meta, with key hires including PyTorch co-founder and CTO Soumith Chintala, research director Piotr Dollár, and several engineers and scientists, making Meta the single largest source of TML's recent recruits.
- TML is rapidly expanding its infrastructure and valuation, securing a multibillion-dollar cloud deal with Google for access to Nvidia's latest GB300 chips, placing it in the same tier as Anthropic and Meta, while its headcount grows to around 140 employees.
- A bidirectional talent war is intensifying between Meta and TML, with Meta having poached seven of TML's founding members while TML continues pulling researchers from Meta and other top firms, driven in part by TML's $12 billion valuation and significant financial upside for early employees.