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Today’s Menu

• Meta Just Stole a Key Founder From Mira Murati's Startup

• Crypto Survives Historic $20B Liquidation Event

Markets

TODAY IN AI

Meta Just Stole a Key Founder From Mira Murati's Startup

Andrew Tulloch, co-founder of Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab, just departed the AI startup to rejoin Meta, marking another major talent acquisition for Mark Zuckerberg's Superintelligence Lab.

Tulloch spent 11 years at Meta before joining OpenAI, and confirmed his exit in an internal message citing personal reasons. He helped launch Thinking Machines alongside former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati in February after raising $2B and building a 30-person team.

Meta reportedly pursued Tulloch this summer with a compensation package as high as $1.5B over six years, though the tech giant disputed the numbers. The hiring comes as Meta reorganizes AI teams under its MSL division while planning up to $72B in infrastructure spending this year.

The timing is fascinating - TML recently released its first product, and Tulloch had already reportedly turned down Meta's massive offer before reversing course. Meta's internal shakeup hasn't been without growing pains, but this huge talent infusion coupled with their compute advantage makes their next model release highly anticipated.

When Meta can pull co-founders away from $2B-funded AI startups, the talent wars aren't just heating up - they're reaching nuclear temperatures.

TODAY IN CRYPTO

Crypto Survives Historic $20B Liquidation Event

Friday was absolute carnage. More than $20 billion in positions liquidated - the largest wipeout in crypto history - before US-China trade softening triggered a weekend rebound.

Bitcoin plunged 13% in a single hour while open interest collapsed by $65 billion, erasing weeks of buildup and resetting positioning to July levels. Altcoins fared worse - ATOM briefly hit zero before recovering. Liquidity vanished, order books thinned, and exchanges triggered auto-deleveraging.

Bitwise's Jonathan Man summarized: "C-tier trading teams got carried out... but the flush leaves markets on firmer footing."

Then relief came. China's Ministry of Commerce announced readiness to "strengthen dialogue," adding export controls would have "minimal impact on global supply chains." Trump echoed the shift on Truth Social, and sentiment snapped back instantly.

Bitcoin rebounded above $114K, up 3% Sunday. ETH, SOL, and DOGE surged 10-14%, clawing back Friday's losses. Vice President Vance confirmed de-escalation, calling Trump "a reasonable negotiator."

Perspective matters: BTC remains down 7% for the week, ETH down 8%, with altcoins nearly double that. But positioning is now clean, leverage flushed, and liquidity providers re-entering.

This wasn't the end of the bull - it was the clearing event before the next leg higher. And a brutal reminder: don't use leverage.

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Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Damon James