Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab Aims for Record-Breaking $2 Billion Seed Round

7 Sources

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's new AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is reportedly seeking a $2 billion seed funding round, potentially valuing the company at $10 billion. The startup, which has no product or revenue yet, is attracting significant investor interest due to its high-profile AI talent roster.

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Unprecedented Funding Ambitions

Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, is reportedly aiming to raise a staggering $2 billion in its seed funding round. This ambitious target, if achieved, would make it one of the largest seed rounds in startup history 12. The company has doubled its initial fundraising goal and is now seeking a valuation of at least $10 billion, despite having no product or revenue to speak of 13.

High-Profile Talent Attracts Investors

The primary draw for investors appears to be the impressive roster of AI talent that Thinking Machines Lab has assembled. The company launched in February with a team of around 30 leading AI researchers and engineers, two-thirds of whom were former OpenAI employees 2. Since then, other prominent figures from the AI research community have joined as advisors or team members:

  • John Schulman, former OpenAI co-founder, as chief scientist
  • Barret Zoph, ChatGPT co-creator, as CTO
  • Bob McGrew, former OpenAI Chief Research Officer, as advisor
  • Alec Radford, lead researcher for many of OpenAI's flagship AI models, as advisor 124

Venture Capital Interest

Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) is reportedly in talks to lead this outsized early-stage funding round 2. Sequoia Capital is also said to be in discussions to join the funding round 2. This level of interest from top-tier VCs underscores the current enthusiasm for AI startups, especially those founded by former employees of leading AI labs 4.

Thinking Machines Lab's Vision

While specific details about the company's technology remain scarce, Thinking Machines Lab has stated its intention to create AI systems that are "more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable" than those currently available 1. The company plans to focus on building multimodal AI models with reasoning features, aiming to be "at the frontier of capabilities in domains like science and programming" 35.

Industry Implications

Murati's venture is part of a growing trend of former OpenAI executives launching well-funded AI startups, including Dario Amodei's Anthropic and Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence 2. This pattern is reshaping the landscape of advanced AI research and development, with these new companies potentially challenging incumbents like OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and others 5.

Challenges and Expectations

Despite the excitement surrounding Thinking Machines Lab, the company faces significant challenges. It must justify its high valuation and massive funding by delivering breakthrough AI technologies in a highly competitive field. The success of this venture could have far-reaching implications for the AI industry, potentially shifting the balance of power among leading AI research organizations and influencing the direction of future AI development 45.

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