TLDRs:
Contents
- Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab raised $2 billion in seed funding, reaching a $10 billion valuation in just six months.
- The startup is staffed by former OpenAI researchers, including co-founder John Schulman.
- Investors are prioritizing AI talent and reputation over product readiness or revenue.
- Thinking Machines Lab reflects broader tensions as top talent exits OpenAI to build new rivals.
Former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati has secured $2 billion in seed funding for her new artificial intelligence venture, “Thinking Machines Lab.”
The company, founded just six months ago, is already valued at a staggering $10 billion, despite having no public products or revenue.
The funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most influential venture capital firms in tech, with additional participation from Conviction Partners. Although the startup has remained tight-lipped about its product roadmap or research focus, the scale of the investment underscores the market’s growing appetite for talent-driven AI ventures.
A new AI elite forms around ex-OpenAI leaders
Thinking Machines Lab isn’t just another entrant in the AI race, it represents a broader shift in the industry’s power dynamics. Murati has recruited a team composed primarily of former OpenAI colleagues, including co-founder John Schulman. The startup also boasts top-tier advisers such as Bob McGrew and Alec Radford, both of whom played critical roles in OpenAI’s research breakthroughs.
This concentration of talent has drawn comparisons to the so-called “PayPal Mafia” era of Silicon Valley, where a close-knit group of alumni from one successful company went on to build industry-defining enterprises. Former OpenAI employees have now launched at least 15 AI startups, collectively raising close to $8 billion in funding. Investors appear less concerned with product stage and more focused on team credentials, betting heavily on the people who helped shape generative AI’s formative years.
A $10 billion bet on vision over revenue
Murati’s startup is emblematic of a new breed of AI companies drawing vast sums before releasing a single product. Thinking Machines Lab’s $10 billion valuation is unprecedented for a company of its age and stage. For comparison, legacy giants like Uber and Airbnb only achieved such valuations years into their operational maturity.
This outlier valuation also highlights a broader pattern in 2025’s AI funding climate. Venture capital firms are sidelining traditional metrics like product-market fit and revenue in favor of visionary leadership and research pedigree. With global AI funding surpassing $100 billion last year, a growing number of firms are treating early-stage AI ventures as foundational bets in a high-stakes technological arms race.
OpenAI’s talent drain fuels its competition
Thinking Machines Lab’s emergence also reflects internal shifts at OpenAI. The company has experienced a wave of high-profile departures, with nine senior executives exiting in 2024 alone. These exits reportedly stem from internal debates about the company’s direction, particularly the tension between OpenAI’s profit-driven strategies and its original safety-focused mission.
Murati, once at the helm of projects like ChatGPT and DALL·E, is said to be prioritizing the development of AI systems that encode human values more reliably. That vision suggests Thinking Machines Lab could become both a philosophical and commercial rival to OpenAI. As more alumni exit and pursue independent visions, the competitive landscape is being reshaped not just by technology but by the ideologies behind it.
