Mira Murati’s AI Startup Thinking Machines Lab Hits $12 Billion Valuation in Just Five Months
Mira Murati's AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, has surged to a $12 billion valuation within five months, led by significant funding and a strong vision for multimodal AI.
Key Points
- • Mira Murati's AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, achieved a $12 billion valuation in five months.
- • The startup secured $2 billion in a seed funding round, one of Silicon Valley's largest.
- • Key investors include Nvidia, AMD, and Andreessen Horowitz.
- • Thinking Machines Lab aims to develop multimodal AI with open-source components.
Mira Murati, the former Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI, has successfully launched her AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, which achieved an astonishing valuation of $12 billion within just five months of its inception. This milestone comes shortly after the company secured $2 billion in a seed funding round, one of the largest investments in Silicon Valley history. Key investors in this round include high-profile names like Nvidia, AMD, and Jane Street, with the funding being led by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz.
Thinking Machines Lab's vision centers around creating multimodal AI systems that improve human collaboration and interaction. Murati emphasizes the significance of integrating open-source components into their upcoming products, which are aimed primarily at researchers and startups. Although the startup has not yet released any official product, it is preparing for a launch in the upcoming months, which will include features geared towards facilitating the development of custom AI models.
In addition to the impressive financial backing and valuation, Thinking Machines Lab has attracted top talent from leading tech companies, including former researchers from Google, Meta, and Mistral AI, further enhancing its credibility and capabilities. Murati’s leadership, bolstered by her prior role at OpenAI, reassures investors of the startup's potential for growth and innovation. In her own words, Murati stated, “We believe AI should enhance individual agency and be distributed equitably,” reflecting the company's commitment to social responsibility in technology development.
This rapid progression of Thinking Machines Lab aligns with a broader trend of former OpenAI executives pursuing their entrepreneurial ventures, with noteworthy examples including Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence and Dario Amodei's Anthropic, the latter of which has recently raised $3.5 billion and reached a staggering valuation of $61.5 billion. As Thinking Machines Lab prepares to make its mark in the AI landscape, the anticipation around its first product and its innovative approach to AI development continues to grow.