Key Takeaways
- Mira Murati, former OpenAI CTO, is raising substantial funds for her new AI venture, Thinking Machines Lab.
- The startup is reportedly seeking around $2 billion, aiming for a $10 billion valuation.
- Investors are being asked for a minimum commitment of $50 million to participate.
- Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is said to be leading the funding round, which is nearing completion.
- Thinking Machines Lab intends to make AI more accessible and customizable, stepping into a competitive field.
Mira Murati, a prominent figure from OpenAI, is embarking on a new venture called Thinking Machines Lab, and it’s already attracting significant financial attention.
Sources close to the deal reveal that investors looking to back the new AI company are being asked to commit a minimum of $50 million.
Thinking Machines Lab is reportedly aiming to raise approximately $2 billion in capital, which would give the fledgling company a striking $10 billion valuation, as detailed by Business Insider.
The major funding effort is reportedly being led by the well-known venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and is said to be in its final stages. A spokesperson for Thinking Machines Lab declined to comment, and Andreessen Horowitz did not respond to requests.
Should this financing close as reported, it would rank among the largest seed rounds ever recorded, as these typically involve much smaller sums.
The high minimum investment and valuation underscore the intense investor excitement for generative AI. It also highlights the limited pool of founders with Murati’s level of expertise and the strong team she’s building.
Furthermore, developing sophisticated AI models and attracting top-tier talent in this specialized field requires enormous financial resources.
Murati spent over six years at OpenAI, playing a key role in developing technologies like ChatGPT. She also briefly stepped in as interim CEO of OpenAI in late 2023.
While the exact strategy for Thinking Machines Lab to differentiate itself in a crowded market—alongside players like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google—is still a subject of much discussion, Murati has offered some insight.
In a blog post earlier this year, she described the startup as an AI research and product lab dedicated to making artificial intelligence more widely understood, customizable, and broadly capable.
