Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12 billion in early-stage funding
The fundraise also saw participation from AI chip giant Nvidia, Accel, ServiceNow, Cisco, AMD and Jane Street, the startup said.
The massive funding round for a company launched only in February, with no revenue or products yet, underscores Murati's ability to attract investors in a sector where top executives have become coveted targets in an escalating talent war.
'We're excited that in the next couple months we will be able to share our first product, which will include a significant open source component and be useful for researchers and startups developing custom model,' CEO Murati said in a post on the X social media platform.
Reuters had reported in April Andreessen Horowitz was in talks to lead an outsized early-stage funding round.
Thinking Machines has said it wants to build artificial intelligence systems that are safer, more reliable and aimed at a broader number of applications than rivals. Nearly two-thirds of its team at launch comprised of former OpenAI employees.
Murati, who started Thinking Machines after an abrupt exit from OpenAI last September, is among a growing list of former executives from the ChatGPT maker who have launched AI startups.
Another two, Dario Amodei's Anthropic and Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence, have attracted former OpenAI researchers and raised billions of dollars in funding.
Investor enthusiasm toward new AI startups has stayed strong, despite some questions about tech industry spending.
That helped U.S. startup funding surge nearly 76% to $162.8 billion in the first half of 2025, with AI accounting for about 64.1% of the total deal value, according to a Pitchbook report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
ChatGPT may be a little different now as OpenAI rolls out a new ‘warmer and friendlier' update
OpenAI has announced that it has made the new GPT-5 AI model more 'warmer and friendlier' following initial feedback that the model felt too formal. The AI startup says that while the changes are subtle, GPT-5–powered ChatGPT should now feel more approachable. Despite adding some light flattery in the model with gestures like 'Good question' and 'Great start,' OpenAI says GPT-5 shows no increase in sycophancy (being overly agreeable with users) compared to the earlier GPT-5 personality. The new update is rolling out to all users and should take about a day to complete. Meanwhile, head of ChatGPT Nick Turley said that users can further customize ChatGPT's personality through the Custom Instructions settings. He also hinted at new upcoming ways to tailor ChatGPT's personality according to user preference. Notably, OpenAI also provides an option to choose from four different personalities — Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd — to tailor GPT-5's responses. However, this feature is currently restricted to paying customers and does not apply to the free tier of the app. OpenAI had high hopes for its GPT-5 rollout, with CEO Sam Altman creating significant hype around the new AI model in the past few months. However, when the model finally launched last week, it was met with anything but a warm reception from users. ChatGPT users complained that GPT-5's responses were shorter and seemed to lack the emotional depth of the previous model. Just a few months ago, OpenAI faced criticism for making GPT-4o too sycophantic, but this time, its new model received backlash for almost the opposite reasons. Another major reason the GPT-5 launch fell flat was user frustration over the removal of all older AI models from ChatGPT. This not only disrupted workflows for many but also reduced usage limits for $20/month ChatGPT Plus subscribers, who went up in arms and threatened to cancel their subscriptions. OpenAI then increased the rate limits for ChatGPT Plus users, first for the standard model and later for the GPT-5 Thinking model as well. The company also brought back the model picker in ChatGPT to allow users to select which AI model should answer their queries.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
an hour ago
- Business Standard
OpenAI staff plan to sell $6 billion in stock to SoftBank, other investors
Current and former OpenAI employees plan to sell approximately $6 billion worth of shares to an investor group that includes Thrive Capital, SoftBank Group Corp. and Dragoneer Investment Group, in a deal that values the ChatGPT maker at $500 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The talks are early and the size of the share sale could still change, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The secondary share investment is on top of SoftBank's commitment to lead OpenAI's $40 billion funding round, which values the company at $300 billion, according to another person familiar with the deal. That round remains ongoing, with OpenAI recently securing $8.3 billion from a syndicate of investors. Representatives for Dragoneer and Thrive didn't respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for OpenAI and SoftBank declined to comment. All three firms are existing OpenAI backers. Allowing employees to sell shares is an important tool for startups trying to retain top talent, without requiring the company to go public or be acquired. In some cases, early investors also use these deals to sell down their stakes, though OpenAI investors are not eligible to do so in this round, according to a person familiar with the matter. Current and former employees who spent at least two years at the company are able to participate. With its participation in the share sale, as well as its previous commitments, SoftBank is making a pivotal bet on the success of OpenAI. In addition to those deals, the Japanese conglomerate headed by Masayoshi Son recently closed a separate $1 billion purchase of OpenAI employee shares at a $300 billion valuation, according to a person familiar with the matter. Negotiations for that deal started before talks around the $500 billion secondary valuation began, they said. The $500 billion valuation would make OpenAI the world's most valuable startup, surpassing Elon Musk's SpaceX. The company expects revenue to triple this year to $12.7 billion, up from $3.7 billion in 2024, Bloomberg has reported. And the secondary deal talks come on the heels of the release of its highly-anticipated GPT-5 model. This week, OpenAI chief Sam Altman sat down with a group of reporters and shared his vision for the company, including that it wants to spend trillions of dollars on the infrastructure required to run AI services in the 'not very distant future.' 'You should expect a bunch of economists to wring their hands and say, 'This is so crazy, it's so reckless,' and whatever,' Altman said. 'And we'll just be like, 'You know what? Let us do our thing.''
Mint
2 hours ago
- Mint
OpenAI could buy Google Chrome, says Sam Altman — but only if this happens
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has confirmed that the AI startup is interested in buying Google Chrome if Google is forced to sell its browser by the US government. The confirmation from Altman came just days after a Wall Street Journal report revealed that Perplexity AI had reportedly offered $34.5 billion in cash to acquire Chrome from Alphabet. Notably, Google lost an antitrust trial in the United States last year, where the judge ruled that the tech giant had illegally monopolized the online search market. As part of the remedial measures, the Department of Justice has suggested that Chrome be sold to an independent entity to level the playing field. Speaking to reporters, Sam Altman said (as quoted by TechCrunch), 'If Chrome is really going to sell, we should take a look at it.' 'Is it actually going to sell? I assumed it wasn't gonna happen,' the OpenAI CEO added. Meanwhile, there have been reports that OpenAI is building its own AI browser, and Altman confirmed that the recent addition of its CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, means the company is working on many consumer applications outside of ChatGPT. Altman also stated that OpenAI is interested in exploring a new social media platform, saying there is 'nothing' inspiring to him about the way AI is used on social media today, TechCrunch reported. He said OpenAI is interested in 'whether or not it is possible to build a much cooler kind of social experience with AI.' The OpenAI CEO also confirmed that the company would be backing a neural interface startup called Merge Labs to compete with Elon Musk's Neuralink. 'I think neural interfaces are cool ideas to explore. I would like to be able to think something and have ChatGPT respond to it,' he added. Notably, tensions have flared up between Musk and Altman over alleged Apple bias over App Store. While Musk accused the iPhone maker of being biased towards ChatGPT and not featuring his Grok AI application in any of its rankings, Altman took a dig at the billionaire over X's own policies of amplifying Musks' tweets to all users.
