AI Talent Exodus Hits Thinking Machines Lab as Meta, OpenAI and xAI Lure Founders

Thinking Machines Lab has lost about a third of its founding team to rivals such as Meta, OpenAI, and xAI amid a fierce AI-talent scramble driven by nine-figure compensation and the one-year equity cliff; despite the exodus, the startup has attracted top hires, unveiled a new real-time, multilingual AI model, and is hiring to create a fresh equity framework to retain talent.