Latest news with #MiraMurati
TechCrunch
5 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
OpenAI, Thinking Machines Lab, and the built-in chaos of a $2B seed round
OpenAI's former chief technology officer, Mira Murati, just raised one of the largest seed rounds in history. Murati secured $2 billion in that seed round for Thinking Machines Lab — a startup so early, it hasn't even revealed what it's working on yet. The move is raising eyebrows across Silicon Valley, and it's only the latest in a wave of top researchers splintering off from OpenAI to chase their own AI moonshots. Today, on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Rebecca Bellan and Anthony Ha break down what's fueling the OpenAI talent shuffle, investor enthusiasm, and a former employee's behind-the-scenes peek inside the company. Either way, the team agrees: seed rounds really have changed. Listen to the full episode to hear more news from the week, including: The drama around xAI's safety practices keeps coming, with researchers from OpenAI and Anthropic publicly criticizing Musk's AI startup over Grok's latest scandals and what they reveal about broader AI safety gaps Uber investing hundreds of millions into premium robotaxis with Lucid and Nuro. Kirsten and Rebecca have some thoughts on whether this is a smart move or more AV déjà vu The AI coding assistant sector is heating up with major acquisitions. Devin-maker Cognition acquired Windsurf just days after Google poached the latter's leadership in what's becoming a pattern of reverse acquihires And Jack Dorsey's latest string of vibe-coding projects and nonprofit hacker collective, all pointing back to his long-standing push for decentralized tech Equity will be back for you next week, so don't miss it! Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.
India Today
5 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Boom or Bubble? The soaring stakes in the AI gold rush
The global AI industry is witnessing record-breaking investments, with US firms like OpenAI, xAI, and Anthropic dominating the valuation charts. There has never been a surge in investment in the artificial intelligence industry like what's happening now. Billions of dollars are pouring into firms promising to change the future of technology. This surge came after OpenAI released ChatGPT, an AI chatbot based on the GPT language model. OpenAI is at the top of the AI valuation table. According to a report by CB Insights, it is now the most valuable AI startup in the world, worth USD 300 billion. It has grown quickly thanks to partnerships and a wave of funding, with the most recent round bringing in $40 billion in March 2025, led by SoftBank Group. Apart from OpenAI, Databricks and Anthropic are two other US-based firms betting on AI and worth more than USD 60 billion. Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has also made it to the top, making it one of the four AI businesses among the world's ten most valuable private tech companies. The dominance of US-based companies in this sector is striking. Seven of the eight highest-valued AI startups are headquartered in the United States. The only exception is Celonis, a German firm specialising in process optimisation through AI and other technologies. Despite its European roots, Celonis has a strong presence in the US market and is currently valued at $13 billion. One of the newer entrants generating buzz is Safe Superintelligence, a US startup founded just last year by a team of former OpenAI, Apple, and academic researchers. Despite raising only USD 3 billion, the company is already valued at USD 30 billion. Its mission is to build a superintelligent AI system that prioritises safety above all else. Another startup making headlines is Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati. It has just closed a massive USD 2 billion seed round, pushing its valuation to USD 12 billion. However, not all that glitters in AI space is gold. As companies scale up AI projects, a recent Gartner report warns that over 40 per cent of projects involving "agentic" AI (systems designed to make decisions and act autonomously) will be cancelled by the end of 2027. The research firm cites high development costs, unclear return on investment, and technological immaturity as key reasons. It also raised a growing trend of "agent washing," where companies label traditional tools as intelligent agents without delivering on the promises. However, Gartner reports that agentic AI adoption is growing steadily, forecasting that by 2028, it will drive 15 per cent of daily business decisions and power a third of enterprise applications. Despite the rising valuations and adoption of AI in everyday life, public perception remains cautious, sharply contrasting with expert views. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that while 47 per cent of AI researchers feel more excited than concerned about AI's growing role in daily life, 51 per cent of US adults feel the opposite. Both groups are worried about misinformation, deepfakes, and privacy issues, but they disagree on things like losing jobs and being socially isolated. There has never been a surge in investment in the artificial intelligence industry like what's happening now. Billions of dollars are pouring into firms promising to change the future of technology. This surge came after OpenAI released ChatGPT, an AI chatbot based on the GPT language model. OpenAI is at the top of the AI valuation table. According to a report by CB Insights, it is now the most valuable AI startup in the world, worth USD 300 billion. It has grown quickly thanks to partnerships and a wave of funding, with the most recent round bringing in $40 billion in March 2025, led by SoftBank Group. Apart from OpenAI, Databricks and Anthropic are two other US-based firms betting on AI and worth more than USD 60 billion. Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has also made it to the top, making it one of the four AI businesses among the world's ten most valuable private tech companies. The dominance of US-based companies in this sector is striking. Seven of the eight highest-valued AI startups are headquartered in the United States. The only exception is Celonis, a German firm specialising in process optimisation through AI and other technologies. Despite its European roots, Celonis has a strong presence in the US market and is currently valued at $13 billion. One of the newer entrants generating buzz is Safe Superintelligence, a US startup founded just last year by a team of former OpenAI, Apple, and academic researchers. Despite raising only USD 3 billion, the company is already valued at USD 30 billion. Its mission is to build a superintelligent AI system that prioritises safety above all else. Another startup making headlines is Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati. It has just closed a massive USD 2 billion seed round, pushing its valuation to USD 12 billion. However, not all that glitters in AI space is gold. As companies scale up AI projects, a recent Gartner report warns that over 40 per cent of projects involving "agentic" AI (systems designed to make decisions and act autonomously) will be cancelled by the end of 2027. The research firm cites high development costs, unclear return on investment, and technological immaturity as key reasons. It also raised a growing trend of "agent washing," where companies label traditional tools as intelligent agents without delivering on the promises. However, Gartner reports that agentic AI adoption is growing steadily, forecasting that by 2028, it will drive 15 per cent of daily business decisions and power a third of enterprise applications. Despite the rising valuations and adoption of AI in everyday life, public perception remains cautious, sharply contrasting with expert views. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that while 47 per cent of AI researchers feel more excited than concerned about AI's growing role in daily life, 51 per cent of US adults feel the opposite. Both groups are worried about misinformation, deepfakes, and privacy issues, but they disagree on things like losing jobs and being socially isolated. Join our WhatsApp Channel
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nvidia and Mira Murati's Quiet Collaboration
At Carnegie Mellon, Mira Murati revealed that her new AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, has raised a jaw?dropping two billion dollars. Backed by Andreessen Horowitz and heavyweights like Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO), the round underscores serious faith in her vision. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 10 Warning Signs with CSCO. She shared on X that the lab is building a multimodal AI system that understands our world through conversation, images and collaborative workflows. Murati hinted that a first product will arrive in the coming months, complete with open?source tools for researchers and startups to customize. Murati's track record speaks volumes. As OpenAI's CTO she helped launch ChatGPT, DALLE, Codex and Sora. Before that she was steering product at Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) for the Model X. Now she's aiming to blend openness with enterprise?grade performance. With prototypes just around the corner and one of AI's most respected leaders at the helm, Thinking Machines Lab could shake up both academic research and commercial AI development. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
AU Financial Review
6 days ago
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Aussie investors in record Silicon Valley AI deal
Paul Bassat's Square Peg Capital is an investor in one of the largest and most competitive seed funding rounds in Silicon Valley history: a $US2 billion capital raising for Mira Murati's secretive artificial intelligence start-up, Thinking Machines Lab. Murati is one of the highest-profile figures in San Francisco's big-money AI scene, and briefly replaced Sam Altman as chief executive of OpenAI when he was sacked in late 2023. She resigned as OpenAI's chief technology officer last October, and has since had investors scrambling to buy into her new company, which is valued at $US12 billion ($18.4 billion) after the deal.
Entrepreneur
7 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Mira Murati AI Startup Thinking Machines Lab Raises $12B
Mira Murati, founder and CEO of Thinking Machine Labs, worked at OpenAI as the chief technology officer for six years. Mira Murati spent six and a half years at OpenAI as its chief technology officer (CTO) before stepping down in September 2024. Now, her AI startup Thinking Machines Lab (TML), which was founded in February, closed a $2 billion seed round this week that values the startup at $12 billion, a spokesperson told TechCrunch. TML has yet to launch any products, at least publicly. But on Tuesday, Murati said on X that the company would be sharing its first product "in the next couple of months." Related: This New AI Startup Led By a Former OpenAI Exec Is Offering $500,000 Salaries "We're building multimodal AI that works with how you naturally interact with the world - through conversation, through sight, through the messy way we collaborate," Murati wrote. "We're excited that in the next couple months we'll be able to share our first product, which will include a significant open source component and be useful for researchers and startups developing custom models." The deal was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Nvidia, Accel, ServiceNow, CISCO, AMD, and Jane Street, Murati wrote. She also noted that TML is hiring. "We're always looking for extraordinary talent that learns by doing, turning research into useful things," she wrote. "We believe AI should serve as an extension of individual agency and, in the spirit of freedom, be distributed as widely and equitably as possible. We hope this vision resonates with those who share our commitment to advancing the field. If so, join us. Related: Here's How Much a Typical Salesforce Employee Makes in a Year According to federal filings obtained by Business Insider, several TML employees are earning around $500,000 in compensation. Thinking Machines Lab exists to empower humanity through advancing collaborative general intelligence. We're building multimodal AI that works with how you naturally interact with the world - through conversation, through sight, through the messy way we collaborate. We're… — Mira Murati (@miramurati) July 15, 2025 Although she was CTO of OpenAI, Murati spent two days as the interim CEO after the current chief executive and co-founder, Sam Altman, was forced out by the board in November 2023. After a drama-filled couple of days, Altman returned to his role. Murati, meanwhile, left OpenAI about a year later. Altman has said Murati was instrumental in the creation of ChatGPT. Join top CEOs, founders and operators at the Level Up conference to unlock strategies for scaling your business, boosting revenue and building sustainable success.
