Silicon Valley believes that whatever Mark Zuckerberg wants, he always gets. Not this time, though. Well-known for his strategic acquisitions (96 companies so far), he tried to acquire a new AI startup called Thinking Machines Lab. He offered a whopping $1 billion to the company’s cofounder, Mira Murati (former CTO of OpenAI), and $1.5 billion to Andrew Tulloch. And to his surprise, both declined the bid. The man whose touch turns to gold is now responding with “a full-scale raid” (meaning he is buying out the company’s people), according to The Wall Street Journal. Well, you may wonder, why is he so desperate about a startup (that hasn’t launched a product yet) after all? Here’s all you need to know.
Meta’s Superintelligence AI Dream Team Effect
Mark is pushing this hard to have the best team onboarded to build the “Superintelligence” AI dream team. AI that is faster, smarter (outthinks human intelligence), and better than any. The first to do so will lead the future of technology and the economy. Thus, Mark wants to be that guy, and so he is luring Thinking Machines Lab’s best talent to his side.
Why Mira Murati and Andrew Tulloch Rejected $1 Billion?
Ironically, Andrew Tulloch worked at Meta from 2012 to 2023 but still rejected Mark’s offer. He contributed widely to its ML infrastructure and PyTorch (an AI research tool). Both Andrew and Murati worked at OpenAI and later cofounded Thinking Machines Lab in 2025. The company’s valuation is about $12 billion now. At their core, they both believe in their startup and want to continue scaling independently, so $1 billion fell short for them.
Meta’s Aggressive Hiring
The Wall Street Journal cites some shocking details about Meta’s aggressive hiring (after being rejected) from the Thinking Machines Lab. Reportedly, Meta reached out to multiple employees, and Matt Deitke, a popular name, has already accepted a $250 million offer.
Matt Deitke is a 24-year-old engineer at Thinking Machines Lab. Meta initially offered him $125 million, only to get rejected. Later, Mark Zuckerberg met Matt Deitke and doubled the offer, and he accepted it this time. About $100 million of that offer is guaranteed in the first year itself.
Not just that, Meta is aggressively targeting the smartest engineering talents out there (from OpenAI, Anthropic, and more). The company got in touch with more than 100 and took 10 on board already.
Whether this is true or not, one thing is certainly clear: Meta is after something big and bigger than AI. Perhaps a mega AI on the brink of rising? We’ll find out soon.
Leave a Reply