Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, has quietly recruited Neal Wu, an award-winning competitive programmer with an impressive pedigree. Wu is a three-time gold medal winner at the International Olympiad in Informatics and was a founding member of Cognition, the AI coding startup valued at $10 billion. He is also the elder brother of Scott Wu, Cognition’s CEO and cofounder.
The hiring represents a significant talent acquisition for Thinking Machines Lab, which helps developers train and customize AI models. According to internal correspondence reviewed by Business Insider, Wu has joined the team, though neither he nor the San Francisco-based startup has publicly announced his role. His LinkedIn profile indicates he has been working as a cofounder and advisor on “something new” since January 2025, coinciding with Murati’s startup emerging from stealth mode.
This recruitment comes at a critical time for Thinking Machines Lab, which has faced aggressive poaching campaigns from tech giants like Meta. The startup, valued at over $10 billion, has experienced significant talent drain in recent months. Meta’s recruitment efforts proved particularly successful, with the company offering compensation packages worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Most notably, Meta hired cofounder Andrew Tulloch with a compensation package reportedly worth up to $1.5 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The talent exodus continued in January when the company’s CTO, Barret Zoph, along with two other founding members, abruptly returned to OpenAI. Despite these departures, Thinking Machines Lab maintains a strong staff pedigree, drawing employees from leading AI labs including OpenAI and Meta.
The startup’s financial backing is substantial. It raised a $2 billion seed round before even launching a product and was reportedly seeking additional funding at a $50 billion valuation as of November, according to Bloomberg. Wu’s addition to the team demonstrates that despite the competitive talent landscape and recent departures, Murati’s venture continues to attract elite AI and programming talent in the increasingly heated battle for top minds in artificial intelligence development.
Key Quotes
Meta eventually hired cofounder Andrew Tulloch after offering him a compensation package of up to $1.5 billion
This quote from The Wall Street Journal reporting illustrates the extraordinary compensation levels in the AI talent war, showing how tech giants are willing to spend unprecedented amounts to acquire top AI talent from promising startups.
Our Take
The AI talent wars have entered a new phase where individual engineers command compensation packages that rival entire company acquisitions from previous tech eras. Neal Wu’s quiet move to Thinking Machines Lab is particularly intriguing given his founding role at Cognition—it suggests either a compelling vision from Murati or potential strategic alignment between the companies. The fact that Thinking Machines Lab can still attract elite talent despite losing key figures like Tulloch and Zoph demonstrates the enduring value of Murati’s leadership brand from her OpenAI tenure. However, the startup’s ability to retain talent long-term remains questionable when competitors can offer billion-dollar packages. The real test will be whether Thinking Machines Lab can translate this talent into a product that justifies its astronomical valuation before the funding environment potentially tightens.
Why This Matters
This development highlights the intense talent competition reshaping the AI industry landscape. The battle for elite programmers and AI researchers has reached unprecedented levels, with compensation packages reaching into the billions and startups valued in the tens of billions before product launches. Neal Wu’s move to Thinking Machines Lab is significant because it demonstrates that Mira Murati’s reputation and vision remain powerful draws despite aggressive counter-offers from established tech giants like Meta.
The story also reveals the interconnected nature of the AI startup ecosystem, with talent flowing between companies like Cognition and Thinking Machines Lab. Wu’s background in competitive programming and AI coding tools makes him particularly valuable for a company focused on helping developers train and customize AI models. The $50 billion valuation being sought by Thinking Machines Lab underscores investor confidence in AI infrastructure companies, even as the industry faces questions about sustainability and profitability. This talent war will likely shape which companies emerge as leaders in the next generation of AI development tools and platforms.
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