Meta's loss is Thinking Machines' gain

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TLDR

  • Thinking Machines Lab is pulling talent from Meta at a faster rate than Meta is poaching from it.

Key Facts

  • TML has hired more researchers from Meta than from any other single employer, per LinkedIn profiles reviewed.
  • Key hires include Soumith Chintala (11 years at Meta, co-founder of PyTorch) as CTO, and Piotr Dollár (11 years, co-authored Segment Anything).
  • TML recently signed a multibillion-dollar cloud deal with Google for Nvidia GB300 chips, putting it in the same infrastructure tier as Anthropic and Meta.
  • TML’s headcount is now around 140; the company is valued at $12 billion.

Why It Matters

  • The talent flow runs in both directions, complicating the narrative that Meta is simply draining TML of its founders.
  • TML’s infrastructure deal and $12 billion valuation signal meaningful financial upside for researchers weighing offers.

Connie Loizos, TechCrunch · 2026-04-24 · Read the original