"The King of PyTorch" returns to Meta with a $1.5 billion salary! The most expensive AI genius superstar in history is born
Andrew Tulloch, who previously worked at Meta for 11 years, has returned to Meta as a star researcher in the field of AI, with a salary of up to $1.5 billion. Tulloch was involved in the development of GPT-4o and GPT-4.5, and left Thinking Machines for personal reasons, choosing to return to Meta. This move has led to speculation among netizens that his salary could reach $2 billion. Tulloch holds advanced degrees from the University of Sydney and the University of Cambridge and has participated in the development of large-scale machine learning systems at Meta
The king of PyTorch has really returned to Meta!
WSJ exclusively reported that Thinking Machines confirmed—co-founder and star AI researcher Andrew Tulloch has left to join Meta.
On Friday, Tulloch announced this decision in an internal letter.
In August this year, he famously turned down a $1.5 billion salary offer from Zuckerberg, causing a huge stir online.
Tulloch is not only a co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab but also the chief architect.
Prior to this, he worked at Meta for 11 years; then in 2023, he joined OpenAI, focusing on the pre-training of GPT-4o and GPT-4.5, as well as the development of the o series reasoning.
A spokesperson for Thinking Machines stated, "For personal reasons, Tulloch has decided to seek a different path of development."
Some netizens speculate that he returned this time with at least $2 billion.
The Soul of PyTorch Snatched Up by Silicon Valley
On his personal homepage, Andrew Tulloch completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Sydney, earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics.
During his time at school, he achieved a First Class Honours degree with a GPA of 93. He then obtained a master's degree in mathematical statistics from the University of Cambridge.
After graduation, Tulloch spent the longest time at Meta, where he participated in large-scale machine learning systems.
During this period, an anecdote also occurred.
In 2016, a few years after Tulloch joined Facebook (now Meta), OpenAI President Greg also personally reached out to recruit him.
In an email to Elon Musk, he wrote, "Tulloch's annual salary at Facebook is $800,000, and he is likely to try to negotiate a raise."
At that time, the salary for new employees at OpenAI was: an annual salary of $175,000 + an annual bonus of $125,000.
He was almost ready to agree to join, but he was concerned about the large salary gap and ultimately declined.
Seven years later, when ChatGPT had become a global sensation and OpenAI's valuation soared, Tulloch finally made the choice to join.
Now, he can turn down a seven-figure salary package in one go, shocking everyone.
Former Meta executive Mike Vernal praised Tulloch, saying, "He is an absolutely recognized AI genius."
Zuckerberg's Recruitment Never Stops
Like other top tech companies, Meta is also ambitious in the AI field: this year alone, it plans to invest up to $72 billion in capital expenditures, mainly for building data centers to train its AI models.
Meta invests billions in AI, Zuckerberg claims "superintelligence is on the horizon."
In recent weeks, Meta released its latest AI product—an AI video generator—and set up a dedicated tab for this feature in its Meta AI app.
But soon after, OpenAI released a similar product—Sora 2.
In recent months, Zuckerberg has been playing the role of the company's "chief recruiter," directly contacting AI researchers through email and social media, inviting them to dinner at his home, and outlining the company's vision to them.
He is committed to attracting top talent, and in some cases, has even offered salary packages worth $100 million or more.
Meta ultimately recruited over 50 AI researchers, engineers, and other employees from companies like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Apple, Anthropic, and xAI, restructuring its AI team into the newly established Superintelligence Labs department
Meta has also reached an agreement with data labeling startup Scale AI to acquire a 49% stake and has appointed its CEO Alexandr Wang to lead this new department.
Currently, Meta's Super Intelligence Lab has four teams, including the TBD Lab. This team is located next to Zuckerberg's office area and is working on developing the company's next-generation large language model called Llama.
This personnel change is Meta's latest significant recruitment effort.
As the company shifts its focus to integrating the newly formed talent-intensive AI team and is committed to achieving its so-called "super intelligence," its hiring frenzy during its peak has slowed down.
This article is sourced from: New Intelligence, original title: "Just In: The 'King of PyTorch' Returns to Meta with a $1.5 Billion Salary! The Most Expensive AI Genius Superstar in History is Born"
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