Thinking Machines Lab inks massive compute deal with Nvidia

Mira Murati, co-founder of OpenAI, has announced a significant partnership between her AI research initiative, Thinking Machines Lab, and the semiconductor powerhouse Nvidia. This collaboration, revealed on Tuesday, marks a multi-year strategic alliance aimed at leveraging Nvidia's advanced AI technology. While the exact financial details of the agreement remain under wraps, it involves the deployment of at least one gigawatt of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin systems, expected to commence in 2027. In addition to this partnership, Nvidia is also making a strategic investment in Thinking Machines Lab, which has amassed over $2 billion in funding from prominent investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Nvidia, as well as AMD's venture arm. The startup, valued at over $12 billion, is focused on developing AI models that yield reproducible results. Despite its impressive backing, Thinking Machines Lab has yet to release any products. TechCrunch reached out for further insights into the deal and investment specifics, but the lab opted to remain tight-lipped beyond its initial announcement. According to a press release from Nvidia, the partnership also entails a commitment to enhance training and serving systems tailored for Nvidia’s architecture. Murati emphasized the significance of Nvidia’s technology as a cornerstone for the entire AI field, stating in the partnership's blog post, "This collaboration accelerates our capacity to build AI that people can shape and make their own, as it shapes human potential in turn." Recent months have seen a wave of high-profile departures from Thinking Machines Lab, with co-founder Andrew Tulloch moving to a position at Meta in October. Earlier this year, three other co-founders—Barret Zoph, Luke Metz, and Sam Schoenholz—returned to OpenAI. This new deal arrives at a time when demand for computing resources among AI companies is at an all-time high. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has predicted that by the decade’s end, spending on AI infrastructure could soar to between $3 trillion and $4 trillion. While the specific value of this agreement remains unknown, it is in line with the growing trend; in 2025, OpenAI reportedly secured a landmark $300 billion computing deal with Oracle.