Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months

• AI
• Report
• OpenAI

Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months

He rejoined the company in January after a stint as co-founder of Mira Murati’s competitor, Thinking Machines Lab.

by Hayden FieldJun 19, 2026, 4:49 AM UTC

• Link
• Share
• Gift

Image: The Verge

• AI
• Report
• OpenAI

Barret Zoph is out at OpenAI again after just five months

He rejoined the company in January after a stint as co-founder of Mira Murati’s competitor, Thinking Machines Lab.

by Hayden FieldJun 19, 2026, 4:49 AM UTC

• Link
• Share
• Gift

Hayden Field is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets.

Five months after returning to OpenAI, Barret Zoph — the company’s head of enterprise AI sales — has departed, The Verge has learned.

Zoph returned to OpenAI in mid-January after a stint as co-founder and CTO of Thinking Machines Lab, the competing AI company founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati. Shortly after Zoph returned to OpenAI, the company said he would lead its push into enterprise — a significant role at OpenAI, since in recent months it had vowed to stop chasing so-called “side quests” and focus on key revenue drivers like enterprise and coding ahead of its planned IPO.

OpenAI confirmed to The Verge that Zoph will be departing. He posted a goodbye message in the company’s Slack channels. Zoph did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Are you a current or former OpenAI employee? Contact me via Signal at haydenfield.11 on a non-work device with tips.

Zoph originally left OpenAI in the fall of 2024 for Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, but departed the role abruptly in January 2026 after reports of alleged misconduct involving an undisclosed relationship with a colleague. Murati posted on X in January that Thinking Machines Lab had “parted ways” with Zoph and that he would be replaced as CTO.

Thinking Machines Lab has its own tensions with OpenAI. Murati briefly took over as CEO from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during his November 2023 ouster, and during the recent OpenAI trial, Murati testified that she couldn’t trust everything Altman said. In September 2024, when Murati left OpenAI to start Thinking Machines Lab, a group of OpenAI employees followed shortly after. But three of them — including Zoph — all returned to OpenAI together this past January. Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, wrote on X at the time that she was “excited to welcome Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz back” and that the decision had “been in the works for several weeks.”

Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.

• Hayden Field
• AI
• OpenAI
• Report

Most Popular

Most Popular

1. Midjourney goes from generating cat images to full-body ultrasound scans
2. Apple’s weird anti-nausea dots cured my car sickness
3. Amazon employees say they’re facing termination for backing data center limits
4. This robotic self-driving toilet comes to you
5. This Ghost in the Shell keyboard makes me want to activate the hundred spidery robot fingers inside my regular fingers

The Verge Daily

A free daily digest of the news that matters most.

Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Advertiser Content From

This is the title for the native ad

More in AI

Amazon employees say they’re facing termination for backing data center limitsPlayWho decides when AI is too dangerous?Adobe’s redesigned AI studio remembers what your creations look likePhotoshop and Premiere now have AI assistantsMidjourney goes from generating cat images to full-body ultrasound scansAnthropic got hit by export rules nobody understandsAmazon employees say they’re facing termination for backing data center limitsHayden FieldJun 18PlayWho decides when AI is too dangerous?Nilay PatelJun 18Adobe’s redesigned AI studio remembers what your creations look likeJess WeatherbedJun 18Photoshop and Premiere now have AI assistantsJess WeatherbedJun 18Midjourney goes from generating cat images to full-body ultrasound scansRichard LawlerJun 18Anthropic got hit by export rules nobody understandsRobert HartJun 17Advertiser Content From

This is the title for the native ad

Top Stories

Jun 18Amazon employees say they’re facing termination for backing data center limitsJun 18This Ghost in the Shell keyboard feels like it came from animeJun 18Who decides when AI is too dangerous?VideoJun 18The midterms are going to be a data security nightmareJun 18Midjourney goes from generating cat images to full-body ultrasound scans