Meta acquires fifth founding member from Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab

Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has seen another original team member move to Meta.

Joshua Gross, a seasoned software engineer, developed and launched Thinking Machines Lab's marquee product, Tinker, from the ground up, as per his LinkedIn profile.

He became part of Meta Superintelligence Labs last month and now oversees engineering teams, according to his LinkedIn bio. 

Gross has prior experience at OpenAI and Meta (previously known as Facebook).

Thinking Machines Lab, which secured a substantial $2 billion funding at a $12 billion evaluation last year, is evolving into a nucleus for AI talent. 

The company has been experiencing talent drainage to bigger tech behemoths as the competition for AI experts in Silicon Valley intensifies.

Meta has acquired five of its original members, including co-founder Andrew Tulloch. 

Additionally, OpenAI has recruited the startup's former CTO, Barret Zoph, along with a leading cybersecurity expert, Jolene Parish.

Nonetheless, Thinking Machines Lab has made significant advancements itself. It appointed Meta's Soumith Chintala, the brain behind the open-source AI initiative PyTorch, as its new CTO. 

The company also discreetly onboarded Neal Wu, a competitive coder with three gold medals from a programming Olympiad, as previously noted by Business Insider.

With headquarters in San Francisco, the startup has seen its team grow over four times its original size, reaching about 130 members since its establishment last year, as informed by a knowledgeable source.