Mira Murati, who previously led the development of groundbreaking AI systems like ChatGPT and DALL-E as OpenAI's Chief Technology Officer, has positioned her new venture Thinking Machines Lab as a formidable competitor in the AI industry after raising one of Silicon Valley's largest-ever seed rounds.
The $2 billion funding round announced on July 15, 2025, was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from technology giants including Nvidia, AMD, ServiceNow, Cisco, and Jane Street. This investment values the five-month-old startup at an impressive $12 billion, reflecting extraordinary investor confidence in Murati's vision and team.
"We're building multimodal AI that works with how you naturally interact with the world – through conversation, through sight, through the messy way we collaborate," Murati stated in her announcement. The company's approach differs from competitors by emphasizing human-AI collaboration rather than fully autonomous systems.
Thinking Machines Lab has attracted exceptional talent, with approximately 30 leading researchers and engineers, many from OpenAI. Key team members include OpenAI co-founder John Schulman as Chief Scientist and former OpenAI research executive Barret Zoph as CTO. The company is actively recruiting additional talent with experience building successful AI products.
While specific product details remain limited, Murati revealed that Thinking Machines Lab will announce its first offering "in the next couple months." The product will include a significant open-source component designed to benefit researchers and startups developing custom AI models. The company has also committed to sharing research to help the scientific community better understand frontier AI systems.
Murati's departure from OpenAI in September 2024 came amid a broader executive exodus following leadership tensions at the company. After a brief stint as OpenAI's interim CEO during Sam Altman's temporary removal in November 2023, she left to pursue her own vision of AI development that prioritizes customization, transparency, and practical applications.