Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12 billion in early-stage funding

Thinking Machines Lab, the artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, has raised approximately $2 billion in a fresh funding round, pushing its valuation to a staggering $12 billion. The announcement was made on Tuesday, just five months after the company’s launch in February.

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and included backing from several tech powerhouses such as Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, Accel, ServiceNow and Jane Street. The size and scale of the investment underline the fierce investor appetite for AI ventures, especially those helmed by ex-OpenAI talent.

“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. Soon, we’ll also share our best science to help the research community better understand frontier AI systems,” Murati posted on X.

While the company is yet to release a product or generate revenue, its team comprises a large number of former OpenAI staffers. Nearly two-thirds of Thinking Machines’ founding team had previously worked at the ChatGPT maker. Murati herself left OpenAI following an unexpected departure in September 2024, and now joins a growing list of former executives who are founding high-profile AI firms.

Dario Amodei’s Anthropic and Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence have followed similar trajectories, attracting substantial capital and ex-OpenAI talent.

Thinking Machines has positioned itself as a builder of safer, more reliable AI systems, designed for broader use cases than existing offerings. The upcoming product is expected to reflect those priorities, with open-source accessibility for developers and researchers.

Despite ongoing scrutiny over tech industry spending, investor confidence in artificial intelligence continues to hold strong. According to a recent Pitchbook report, startup funding in the United States jumped nearly 76 percent to $162.8 billion in the first half of 2025. AI companies alone made up over 64 percent of the total deal value.