Ex-OpenAI Exec’s AI Startup Offers $500K Salaries to Lure Top Talent
▼ Summary
– Mira Murati, former OpenAI CTO, founded Thinking Machines Lab (TML) in 2025 after leaving OpenAI.
– TML is aggressively hiring top AI talent from rivals like Meta, Mistral, and OpenAI, offering high salaries.
– The startup has a $10 billion valuation and aims to raise billions in seed funding.
– TML’s average salary offer of $462,500 for technical hires exceeds competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic.
– Netizens reacted with memes, comparing TML’s hiring spree to Meta’s $100 million bonuses and questioning AI progress.
The AI talent war has reached new heights as a high-profile startup backed by former OpenAI leadership dangles half-million-dollar salaries to attract top engineers. Thinking Machines Lab (TML), founded by ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is aggressively recruiting from industry giants like Meta and Mistral while preparing for a multibillion-dollar funding round.
Murati, who briefly served as OpenAI’s interim CEO during its leadership crisis in 2023, launched TML earlier this year. The startup has already assembled an all-star team, including key architects behind ChatGPT like Bob McGrew and Alec Radford. With an average technical salary nearing $500,000, surpassing offers from OpenAI and Anthropic, TML is making it clear that money talks in the race for AI dominance.
Industry watchers note the parallels to Meta’s recent talent grab, where Mark Zuckerberg reportedly lured OpenAI engineers with $100 million signing bonuses. While TML’s packages aren’t quite at that level, the aggressive compensation strategy underscores the fierce competition for specialized AI expertise. Social media reactions have been mixed, with some joking that “no one beats Zuck’s bucks,” while others speculate whether the salary wars signal a delay in achieving advanced artificial general intelligence (AGI).
The startup’s $10 billion valuation and ambitious hiring spree suggest Murati is betting big on her vision for AI’s next evolution. Whether TML can translate its star-studded roster into groundbreaking products remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the battle for AI talent shows no signs of slowing down.
Meanwhile, the broader industry continues to see high-profile defections, including OpenAI alumni joining Meta’s superintelligence team, a trend that has fueled both memes and serious debate about the sustainability of Silicon Valley’s AI boom.
(Source: Mashable)
