Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12 billion in early-stage funding

Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup founded by Mira Murati, the former Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI, has successfully secured around $2 billion in a recent funding initiative. This significant investment has propelled the company’s valuation to an impressive $12 billion. This announcement came just five months following the startup's inception in February. Leading the funding round was the prominent venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, with substantial support from major tech players, including Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, Accel, ServiceNow, and Jane Street. The scale of this investment highlights the intense interest among investors in AI startups, particularly those led by talent from OpenAI. In a recent update on X, Murati expressed enthusiasm about the company's forthcoming product, which will feature a notable open-source element aimed at aiding researchers and startups in developing tailored models. She emphasized the company's commitment to advancing collaborative general intelligence, stating, "We're building multimodal AI that aligns with natural human interactions—be it through conversation or visual engagement." Though Thinking Machines Lab has yet to launch a product or generate revenue, its founding team is predominantly composed of former OpenAI personnel, with nearly two-thirds of them having previous experience at the organization behind ChatGPT. Murati's departure from OpenAI was noteworthy, occurring unexpectedly in September 2024, and she now joins a cadre of former executives establishing prominent AI firms. Other notable names in this space include Dario Amodei’s Anthropic and Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence, both of which have also garnered significant funding and talent from OpenAI. Thinking Machines aims to create safer, more dependable AI systems tailored for a wider array of applications than those currently available. The anticipated product is expected to embody these priorities, offering open-source resources for developers and researchers. Despite increasing scrutiny regarding tech industry expenditures, confidence in artificial intelligence remains robust, with a recent Pitchbook report indicating that startup funding in the U.S. surged nearly 76 percent to $162.8 billion in the first half of 2025, with AI companies accounting for over 64 percent of the total deal value.