Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab Raises $12B Seed Round

Thinking Machines Lab Secures $2 Billion Seed Funding

Thinking Machines Lab, the artificial intelligence startup established by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has officially finalized a $2 billion seed round. This funding was spearheaded by Andreessen Horowitz, as confirmed by a company representative to TechCrunch on Monday.

Investment Details and Valuation

The investment round saw participation from prominent companies including Nvidia, Accel, ServiceNow, CISCO, AMD, and Jane Street. The startup is now valued at $12 billion, according to the spokesperson.

Initial reports in June indicated a potential $2 billion funding round with a $10 billion valuation. However, the company’s valuation has since increased within the past month.

A Significant Seed Round

This deal represents one of the largest seed funding rounds in the history of Silicon Valley. It demonstrates the substantial investor interest in supporting promising new AI research labs.

Thinking Machines Lab is less than a year old and has not yet publicly disclosed the specifics of its ongoing projects.

Upcoming Product Release and Open Source Commitment

Mira Murati provided a glimpse into the company’s initial product plans via a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. She stated that the startup intends to reveal its work within the “next couple months.”

The initial offering will include a “significant open source offering,” designed to be beneficial for researchers and startups focused on developing customized AI models.

“We’ll also share our best science to help the research community better understand frontier AI systems,” Murati added.

Open AI Model Potential

It remains uncertain whether Thinking Machines Lab will release an open AI model, similar to actions taken by some of OpenAI’s competitors to challenge ChatGPT’s market position. A company spokesperson declined to provide further commentary on this matter.

Team Expansion and Acquisition Interest

Since its inception, Thinking Machines Lab has attracted former colleagues of Murati from OpenAI, including John Schulman, Barret Zoph, and Luke Metz. The company is actively recruiting individuals with a proven history of “building successful AI-driven products from the ground up,” as highlighted on its website.

Recent reports suggest that Meta explored the possibility of acquiring Thinking Machines Lab to strengthen its superintelligence initiatives, but negotiations did not result in a formal offer.

Competitive Landscape

Thinking Machines Lab is considered by investors to be a credible contender against established AI model developers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind.

Resources and Infrastructure

With substantial funding secured, Murati’s company possesses significant resources to train advanced AI models. Thinking Machines Lab has already established a partnership with Google Cloud to provide the necessary infrastructure for its AI models.

Challenges Ahead

Despite its promising start, Thinking Machines Lab faces the challenge of catching up to more established AI labs. The company is likely relying on innovative research breakthroughs to differentiate itself.

However, achieving this differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult as companies like Meta, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and OpenAI continue to invest heavily in their own research and development efforts.