Meta Hires Thinking Machines Co-Founder Andrew Tulloch

Wall Street Journal tech reporter Meghan Bobrowsky recently tweeted that Andrew Tulloch, who helped start Thinking Machines Lab, is now at Meta—news the startup has since confirmed. It's another data point in Big Tech's ongoing scramble for experienced AI builders, where someone like Tulloch counts as a genuine catch.

Why this matters

Meta's been pouring resources into model research and AI infrastructure—everything from recommendation engines to generative assistants to open-source models. Engineers who know how to move ideas from whiteboard to production at scale are hard to find. Tulloch checks that box twice over: he previously worked at Meta, then co-founded his own lab, so he's seen both the corporate platform side and the startup hustle. That combination is rare and valuable.

• Deep technical chops: Reports peg him as a veteran AI/ML engineer comfortable with training pipelines, inference systems, and applied machine learning.
• Real-world deployment experience: His background suggests he's worked on the nuts-and-bolts of getting models into production—exactly what Meta needs as it scales up.
• A return journey: Public profiles show earlier time at Facebook/Meta building ML systems, so this hire is as much reunion as fresh start.

The hire's been confirmed by multiple sources including WSJ, Reuters, and TechCrunch. Compensation details and exact role remain under wraps—Meta hasn't said much publicly—but the move itself is the story.

What it means for the AI talent war

For Meta, landing someone who can ship research-grade work at planetary scale cuts down the time from idea to impact. For startups like Thinking Machines Lab, losing a co-founder shows just how fluid the talent market has become and how hard Big Tech is pulling. For everyone else, expect the bidding wars to keep heating up—especially for engineers who can optimize training, inference, and retrieval while actually shipping reliable products.

Keep an eye on where Tulloch lands internally—research, infrastructure, or product will hint at Meta's near-term priorities. If the company keeps scooping up senior startup operators, we'll likely see a new wave of MLOps and systems innovation. And any updates to Meta's open-source model work will be worth tracking, given the engineering firepower now behind it.