Tulloch was reportedly recruited personally by Mark Zuckberg, who offered him a $1.5 billion pay package over six years. That number has been disputed, but even if it was close, it would have made Tulloch the highest paid employee in the history of the tech industry.

With the AI race in full gear, the rarefied skills possessed by the top thinkers in the field are in extremely high demand. Talented researchers dart between leading labs like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, SpaceXAI and Meta.

Tulloch could command a high salary at another lab, or raise billions from venture capitalists for a startup of his own, like OpenAI’s Ilya Sutskever or Google’s Jeff Dean did.

The question is how long the high-priced revolving door at AI companies will last until the talent field adjusts and creates more supply.