Former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati has secured a landmark $2 billion in seed funding for her AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, valuing the six-month-old venture at $10 billion. The funding round, closed on June 20, was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Sarah Guo's Conviction Partners.
Murati, who left OpenAI in September 2024 after six years at the company, launched Thinking Machines Lab in February 2025. During her tenure at OpenAI, she led the development of groundbreaking AI products including ChatGPT, DALL-E, and the code-generating system Codex. She briefly served as OpenAI's interim CEO during Sam Altman's short-lived removal in November 2023.
The startup has assembled an impressive team of AI talent, including OpenAI co-founder John Schulman as Chief Scientist and former OpenAI VP of Research Barret Zoph as CTO. Other notable team members include former OpenAI Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew and prominent AI researcher Alec Radford, who serves as an advisor.
While Thinking Machines Lab has revealed little about its specific products or revenue plans, the company has stated its mission is to develop AI systems that are "more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable." The startup is focusing on building multimodal AI systems that work collaboratively with humans rather than operating autonomously, with an emphasis on adapting to different domains and expertise levels.
"Our goal is simple, advance AI by making it broadly useful and understandable through solid foundations, open science and practical applications," Murati said when launching the company. The startup has committed to contributing to AI alignment research by sharing code, datasets, and model specifications.
The extraordinary funding round highlights the continued massive capital flow into advanced AI development, with investors willing to bet on proven AI talent even without detailed product roadmaps. The deal's structure reportedly gives Murati unusual control, with board voting rights that outweigh all other directors combined.