Latest news with #ThinkingMachinesLab
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's $2B AI Startup Thinking Machines Lab Sets $50M Investment Minimum, Backed By Andreessen Horowitz And Sequoia Capital
Mira Murati, the former chief technology officer of OpenAI and a central figure behind ChatGPT, is launching her own AI startup, and she's doing it in blockbuster fashion. Thinking Machines Lab, the AI company founded by Murati early this year, is raising a $2 billion seed round at a $10 billion valuation. According to Business Insider, the round is being led by Andreessen Horowitz, with support from Sequoia Capital and other top-tier investors. Those interested in backing the venture are being asked to commit a minimum of $50 million per check, a staggering requirement for what would be one of the largest seed rounds in startup history. Don't Miss: 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — The startup's ambition is to reshape the way artificial intelligence is built and understood. According to the company's website, Thinking Machines Lab will focus on making AI 'more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable,' highlighting a shift toward both transparency and user control. That positioning places the company in direct conceptual competition with AI giants like OpenAI, Google's Gemini, Elon Musk's xAI, and Anthropic, which are all currently racing to define the next generation of large language models and autonomous systems, Business Insider reported. Murati spent more than six years at OpenAI, contributing to the development of ChatGPT and other advanced AI research projects. According to Business Insider, she was briefly appointed interim CEO in November 2023, after the board unexpectedly removed Sam Altman, a decision that triggered internal upheaval across the company. Following Altman's reinstatement just days later, Murati returned to her position as chief technology officer. Trending: Nancy Pelosi Invested $5 Million In An AI Company Last Year — Andreessen Horowitz, the legendary venture capital firm that previously backed Facebook and Airbnb (NASDAQ:ABNB), Financial Times reported, is leading the round alongside Sequoia Capital, known for its investments in Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), and WhatsApp, Fortune says. Their involvement may signal strong institutional belief in Murati's long-term potential. Thinking Machines Lab is also assembling a brain trust of former OpenAI engineers and scientists. According to The Founders Magazine, team members include Bob McGrew, former head of research at OpenAI, Alec Radford, one of the minds behind the original GPT, Barret Zoph, a top researcher on ChatGPT, and John Schulman, co-lead of the Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback technique that powers modern AI early-stage startups command minimum investments in the tens of millions. According to Business Insider, Murati's $50 million threshold is a practical necessity since training large models and building scalable infrastructure requires capital on a massive scale. If the raise closes as expected, Thinking Machines Lab will stand beside OpenAI and Anthropic as one of the most well-capitalized AI startups in the world, Business Insider says, and one of the only ones led by a woman. With technical vision, elite backing, and a mission to open up the black box of AI, Murati's next chapter may reshape the way the world builds and interacts with intelligent systems. Read Next:Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's $2B AI Startup Thinking Machines Lab Sets $50M Investment Minimum, Backed By Andreessen Horowitz And Sequoia Capital originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Business Insider
05-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Want to invest in Mira Murati's new AI startup? You'll have to pony up at least $50 million.
Investors hoping to back former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati's buzzy new AI startup are being asked to commit a minimum of $50 million, according to two sources with knowledge of the deal. Murati is raising around $2 billion of capital at a $10 billion valuation for Thinking Machines Lab, BI previously reported. Multiple sources say the megaround, led by Andreessen Horowitz, is nearing the final stages of fundraising. A spokesperson for Thinking Machines Lab declined to comment. A spokesperson for A16z did not respond to a request for comment. The round is not finalized, and the details could change. The financing would almost certainly rank as one of the largest seed rounds in history, which typically range in the low to mid-single digits. A $50 million check size is beyond the scope of most traditional seed investors because it would represent a substantial percentage, if not their entire fund. The minimum requirement and rich valuation reflect feverish investor enthusiasm for generative AI and the reality that there are a very limited number of technical founders with Murati's expertise and the team she has assembled. It's also enormously expensive to train AI models and recruit and retain top talent. Murati spent over six years at OpenAI, where she worked on the development of ChatGPT and other AI research initiatives. She was briefly appointed interim CEO in November 2023 after OpenAI's board abruptly fired Sam Altman, a move that sparked turmoil within the company. After Altman's reinstatement as CEO, Murati resumed her role as CTO. It has been a widely discussed mystery what exactly Thinking Machines will do to distinguish itself in a crowded and well-funded field that includes not only OpenAI but also Anthropic, Elon Musk's xAI, and Google's Gemini. In a blog post earlier this year, Murati positioned the startup as an artificial intelligence research and product lab focused on making AI more accessible. "To bridge the gaps, we're building Thinking Machines Lab to make AI systems more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable," the post said.
AU Financial Review
30-04-2025
- Business
- AU Financial Review
Australia's VC giants jostle for world's hottest AI start-up
The country's biggest venture capital funds are jostling for a stake in the hottest start-up of the year, the two month-old artificial intelligence business valued at $15 billion. Run by former OpenAI chief executive Mira Murati, Thinking Machines Lab is on the verge of raising $US2 billion ($3.1 billion), making it the biggest early-stage round in history, led by heavyweight Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz, now known as A16z.
Business Insider
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Meet Mira Murati, the former OpenAI CTO raising $2 billion for her secretive AI startup
Mira Murati is the talk of Silicon Valley. Murati made plenty of headlines in 2023 and 2024 amid the turmoil and brain drain at OpenAI. And in early 2025, she's already grabbing more attention for raising a massive new round of funding for her new AI startup. The 36-year-old is building Thinking Machines Lab, the secretive AI startup she launched in late 2024 after leaving OpenAI, where she served as chief technology officer. Murati hasn't revealed many details on what the startup is developing, but in a recent blog post, shared that the company is developing AI models focused on human and AI collaboration. Thinking Machines Lab is currently seeking $2 billion in seed funding, Business Insider first reported, which could be the largest seed round in history. The round could value the startup at more than $10 billion, two sources told BI. In January 2025, BI reported that Murati's startup was seeking $1 billion in seed funding at a $9 billion valuation. A representative for Murati declined to comment for this story. Murati was named to Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in AI in September 2024. That same year, Dartmouth College, her alma mater, awarded her an honorary doctor of science for her work democratizing tech and making it safer for people to use. Prior to founding Thinking Machines Lab, Murati spent six and a half years at OpenAI and was its CTO from 2022 to 2024. When Sam Altman was briefly ousted as CEO of the AI startup in late 2023, Murati stepped in to lead the company on an interim basis. At OpenAI, Murati led the development of ChatGPT and the text-to-image model Dall-E. Earlier in her career, Murati worked at Tesla and at augmented reality startup, Ultraleap. Here's a look at Murati's life and career so far. Mira Murati's early life, education Ermira "Mira" Murati was born in Vlorë, a coastal city in Southwestern Albania. She lived there until she was 16, when she won an academic scholarship to study at Pearson College, a two-year pre-college program in Victoria, British Columbia. Murati participated in a dual-degree program that allows students to earn two degrees from two liberal arts schools in five years. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, in 2011 and a Bachelor of Engineering from Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 2012. After graduating from college, Murati interned at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo and French aerospace company Zodiac Aerospace. She then spent three years at Tesla, where she was a product manager helping develop the Tesla Model X car. From 2016-2018, Murati worked at augmented reality startup LeapMotion, where she worked on replacing computer keyboards with the tech. LeapMotion is now known as Ultraleap. Mira Murati's career at OpenAI Murati originally joined OpenAI in 2018 as the vice president of applied AI and partnerships. In December 2020, she became senior vice president of research, product and partnerships. She was promoted to be CTO of the startup in May 2022, leading the company's work to develop image generator DALL-E, video generator Sora, chatbot ChatGPT, and their underlying models. On November 17, 2023, OpenAI's board shocked the tech world by announcing that Altman was stepping down as CEO and as a member of the board, effective immediately. The board in a blog post said that it "no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI," adding that Altman was "not consistently candid in his communications." Murati was named OpenAI's interim CEO in his place, but the position didn't last long: just one week after he was ousted, Altman was reinstated to OpenAI 's top spot with new board members, and Murati said she fully supported Altman's return. Murati has become known for her more cautious approach to AI and has said she believes it should be regulated. As far back as 2023, Murati acknowledged that there are dangers associated with AI, particularly when it comes to bad actors misusing the tech. In an interview, she told Time Magazine that it shouldn't be up to OpenAI and other AI companies to self-regulate and that regulators and governments should "definitely" be involved to ensure that AI use is aligned with human values. Following her brief time as interim CEO of OpenAI, Murati took on a more forward-facing role at the company. In May 2024, she helped to announce ChatGPT 4-o, the startup's new flagship model that is faster than its predecessor and can reason across text, voice, and vision. OpenAI also debuted a custom chatbot at the 2024 Met Gala, with Murati attending the exclusive event. While weighing in on AI-driven job loss, Murati said that some creative jobs might go away, "but maybe they shouldn't have been there in the first place." Her comments angered many, with one writer telling BI they represented "a declaration of war against creative labor." Mira Murati and Thinking Machines Lab Murati departed OpenAI in September 2024, a move that surprised many people in the tech world. Since departing, she's quietly been working on her new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, which has captured the attention of many in Silicon Valley. While little is known so far about the startup, it is a research and product lab with the goal of making AI more accessible. The startup officially emerged from stealth in February 2025. She's recruited a long list of former OpenAI staffers to Thinking Machines Lab. Ex-Meta and Anthropic employees have joined, too. So far, Thinking Machines Lab employees from OpenAI include John Schulman, who co-led the creation of ChatGPT; Jonathan Lachman, formerly the head of special projects at OpenAI; Barret Zoph, a cocreator of ChatGPT; and Alexander Kirillov, who worked closely with Murati on ChatGPT's voice mode. In early 2025, BI reported that Thinking Machines Lab was raising a $1 billion round at a $9 billion valuation. In April 2025, BI reported that Murati doubled her target and was now seeking to raise a $2 billion round, which would be the biggest seed round in history. Two sources told BI that the round could value Thinking Machines Lab at more than $10 billion. Mira Murati's personal life Little is known about Murati's personal life, family, or relationships. At the Cannes Lions Film Festival in 2024, Murati shared a humorous anecdote about her mother's first interaction with ChatGPT was asking the chatbot when Murati would be getting married. Murati told Time Magazine that the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey stirs her imagination, specifically, the movie's imagery and music in the scene where the space shuttle docks. The movie follows astronauts and an AI supercomputer as they journey to space to find the origin of a mysterious artifact. As the crew travels to the planet Jupiter, the computer tries to kill the astronauts. Murati also told the magazine she likes the song Paranoid Android by Radiohead, as well as the book Duino Elegies, which is a poem collection by Rainer Maria Rilke. A driving force for Murati's work is achieving AGI, or artificial general intelligence, which is AI that mimics human abilities. AGI would be able to adapt to a broad range of tasks, teach itself new skills, and apply that knowledge to new situations. The pursuit of this goal took Murati from Tesla, to Leapmotion, to OpenAI, she told WIRED in a 2023 interview. "I very quickly believed that AGI would be the last and most important major technology that we built, and I wanted to be at the heart of it," she said.
Reuters
11-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
A16z eyes leading mega round in former OpenAI CTO's startup Thinking Machines, sources say
SAN FRANCISCO, April 11 (Reuters) - Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is in talks to lead an outsized early stage funding round of former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati's startup, according to four sources familiar with the matter. The startup, named Thinking Machines Lab, could be valued at $10 billion in the round, sources said, making it one of the most valuable AI startups in the world, despite only launching in February. The company, which has no revenue or products yet, is the latest entrant into the crowded space of companies building generative AI models. 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. Reuters couldn't learn how much Andreessen Horowitz is in talks to invest in this round. Business Insider reported earlier this week the final amount of the entire round could be close to $2 billion. Another VC heavyweight, Sequoia Capital, is also in talks to join the funding round, another source said. Thinking Machines Lab declined to comment. Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The reception shows that investor enthusiasm toward new startups in AI remains extremely high, despite some questions about tech industry spending. An initial round of this size is not unprecedented: In September, former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever raised $1 billion, opens new tab based on his reputation in the field. Andreessen Horowitz, known as A16z, has made big bets in AI, backing competitors to AI heavyweight OpenAI. It has participated in large funding rounds for AI model startups including Elon Musk's xAI, Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence and France-based Mistral. It is currently raising a $20 billion megafund dedicated to later-stage investments in AI companies. If successfully raised, it would be the largest fund in the firm's history. Murati announced Thinking Machines Lab in February with a team of around 30 leading AI researchers and engineers, two-thirds of whom were former OpenAI employees, showing Murati's ability to poach her previous employer's top talent. Since then, other former prominent OpenAI employees have joined Thinking Machines as advisers, including OpenAI's former chief research officer, Bob McGrew, and the lead researcher for many of OpenAI's flagship AI models, Alec Radford. At OpenAI, Murati spent over six years spearheading transformative projects like ChatGPT and DALL-E, and was a key figure in OpenAI's multibillion-dollar partnership with Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, its largest financial backer. She frequently appeared alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as the public face of the ChatGPT maker. Her abrupt resignation in September last year was part of a slew of high-profile exits from OpenAI, and she joined a growing list of former OpenAI executives launching rival startups, such as Dario Amodei's Anthropic and Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence.
