Thinking Machines Lab Seeks $50-60 Billion Valuation in New Funding Round

Massive Valuation Jump for AI Startup

Thinking Machines Lab, the artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, is in early discussions for a new funding round that could value the company at $50-60 billion 1

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. This potential valuation represents more than a fourfold increase from the company's $12 billion valuation achieved in July 2024, when it raised $2 billion in funding 1

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According to Bloomberg sources familiar with the matter, the talks remain in their early stages and the final terms could change. While multiple sources indicated the target valuation is around $50 billion, others suggested it could reach as high as $55 billion or $60 billion 1

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From OpenAI to Independent Venture

Mira Murati announced the formation of Thinking Machines Lab in February 2024, bringing together a team of scientists, engineers and builders focused on advancing AI development 1

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. Before founding the company, Murati spent 6.5 years at OpenAI, most recently serving as the company's chief technology officer and briefly as interim CEO during Sam Altman's temporary ouster in November 2023 1

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The startup has successfully recruited dozens of employees from OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, to join Murati's new venture 2

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. In her February announcement on X, Murati outlined the company's mission to help people adapt AI systems to meet specific needs, develop foundations for more capable AI systems, and foster open science to improve understanding across the field 1

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Product Launch and Market Reception

Thinking Machines released its first product, Tinker, in October 2024. The platform serves as a training application programming interface (API) that provides organizations with full control over model training and fine-tuning while the company manages the underlying infrastructure 1

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. The product is designed to make it easier for users to customize or fine-tune large language models for specific applications 2

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Early market reception has been positive, with research groups at prestigious institutions including Princeton and Stanford universities actively using Tinker. The platform has received favorable feedback from early testers in the AI research community, and the company has already secured paying business customers for the product 2

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