The AI industry's revolving door of executives continues to spin. Barret Zoph, a co-founder of the AI startup Thinking Machines who left the company earlier this year to rejoin OpenAI, has already found his next role.
Zoph originally spent two years at OpenAI before departing in October 2024 to co-found Thinking Machines with Mira Murati, who had left the AI lab the prior month. In January, Zoph and fellow co-founder Luke Metz dramatically exited the startup to return to OpenAI, as reported by TechCrunch at the time.
That return didn't last long. Zoph spent just five months at OpenAI, where he was tasked with leading AI enterprise sales, before leaving in June. Now, we know where he's headed next.
Zoph has taken a position as vice president of research at Google—a company he previously worked for. A Google spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal, "We look forward to Barret returning to Google and bringing his RL and post-training expertise to Gemini."
TechCrunch reached out to both OpenAI and Google for additional comment, but no further details were provided at the time of writing.
The rapid turnover among AI executives is becoming increasingly common. The industry's retention challenges are well-documented, and OpenAI has been particularly affected. Despite preparing for an IPO and maintaining its status as a tech powerhouse, the company has seen a significant exodus of key personnel over the past eight months. High-profile departures—from the COO to top data center executives—have left industry observers puzzled.
For Zoph, this move marks a return to familiar territory, and his expertise in reinforcement learning and post-training will be a valuable addition to Google's Gemini team as the AI race intensifies in 2026.
via TechCrunch AI