Tulloch graduated from the University of Sydney with highest GPA among science students

He earned $800,000 per year working at Facebook

Thinking Machines Lab, the company he co-founded now valued at US$12 billion in 5 months

An Australian artificial intelligence expert Andrew Tulloch described as ‘extreme genius’ has reportedly turned down a staggering one billion-dollar offer from Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta.

A former Facebook employee, Tulloch said to be in his 30s was actually a genius graduating from the University of Sydney and had the highest GPA among science students. After that, he worked on machine learning at Facebook for 18 months before starting graduate school at Cambridge.

In February 2025, he co-founded AI start-up Thinking Machines Lab with former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati. The company is now reportedly valued at US$12 billion (A$18.5 billion).

Originally from Australia, Tulloch is a co-founder at Thinking Machines Lab. Murati has raised over $2 billion from investors. The company’s stated mission is to make “AI systems more widely understood, customizable and generally capable.”.

Murati has said that the startup will share its first product in the “next couple months”. It has reportedly leased an office in a quieter part of San Francisco’s Mission District, a couple of blocks from OpenAI.

He eventually went on to work at Facebook’s AI Research Group and became a distinguished engineer. OpenAI President Greg Brockman tried to hire him in 2016 as one of the company’s first employees, but he was worried about taking a large pay cut from his $800,000 job at Facebook and decided not to join the startup. OpenAI was paying its new recruits an annual salary of $175,000 and a $125,000 annual bonus.

In February, Tulloch co-founded AI start-up Thinking Machines Lab with former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati. The company is now reportedly valued at US$12 billion (A$18.5 billion).

According to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg tried to buy Thinking Machines Lab earlier this year, but Murati rejected his offer. Meta’s CEO then attempted to lure the company’s top talent, including Tulloch.

Tulloch was allegedly offered a US$1 billion (A$1.55 billion) pay package spread over six years, with the potential for even more through bonuses and stock performance.

However, the Perth-born ‘genius’ turned the offer down. Meta later told the Journal the reported US$1 billion figure was ‘inaccurate and ridiculous’.

Mr Tulloch moved to the US in 2012 and spent 11 years at Facebook’s AI company, where he rose to the role of distinguished engineer.

Mike Vernal, a former Facebook executive who worked with Mr Tulloch, said: ‘He was definitely known as an extreme genius.’

In 2023, he moved to OpenAI, the research organisation behind ChatGPT, before joining former colleagues in forming Thinking Machines Lab this year.

The start-up cites its mission of making ‘AI systems more widely understood, customizable and generally capable’.

Mr Tulloch was a vice captain at Christ Church Grammar in Claremont, Western Australia.

He achieved an ATAR of 99.95 in 2007 before graduating with first class honours and the university medal in mathematics at university in 2011.