Barret Zoph will exit OpenAI again after just five months

Five months after returning to OpenAI, Barrett Zoff — the company’s head of AI sales — left. Edge I’ve learned.

Zoph returned to OpenAI in mid-January after a stint as co-founder and CTO of Thinking Machines Lab, a competing AI company founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Moratti. Shortly after Zoph returned to OpenAI, the company said he would lead its move toward enterprise — an important role at OpenAI, which it has pledged in recent months Stop chasing So-called “side quests” and focusing on key revenue drivers such as enterprise and programming ahead of the planned IPO.

OpenAI has been confirmed Edge That Zoff is leaving. He posted a farewell message in the company’s Slack channels. Zoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zoph originally left OpenAI in the fall of 2024 to work at Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab, but abruptly left the role in January 2026 after reports of… Alleged misconduct Involves an undisclosed relationship with a colleague. Moratti to publish On X-day in January, Thinking Machines Lab “spun off” from Zoph and he will be replaced as CTO.

Thinking Machines Lab has its own tensions with OpenAI. Moratti briefly took over as CEO from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during his ouster in November 2023. During OpenAI’s last trial, Moratti to attest She couldn’t trust everything Altman said. In September 2024, when Moratti left OpenAI to start Thinking Machines Lab, a group of OpenAI employees followed soon after. But three of them — including Zoff — all returned to OpenAI together last January. Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI, books On