Seed Round Valuation Reaches $12 Billion: Can She Build Another OpenAI?}
Thinking Machines Lab, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, raised $2 billion in seed funding, valuing it at $12 billion, sparking speculation about creating a new AI giant.
The Financial Times reports that Mira Murati’s startup, Thinking Machines Lab, secured $2 billion in seed funding, with a post-investment valuation of $12 billion. This makes it one of the largest seed rounds in Silicon Valley history.
From “Millions” to “Billions”
What does a $2 billion seed round mean? Let’s start with some financial context.
“Seed Round Funding”: Early-stage startups need initial capital to grow. It’s like planting a seed—small amount, high risk, with the potential for big growth. Usually, early AI startups raise a few million to tens of millions of dollars. Even Anthropic, a fellow OpenAI alumni and now a major AI player, raised only $124 million in its first round (May 2021). $2 billion could buy a majority stake in Windsurf, a company with core tech and a top team.
This challenges traditional notions of startup funding. Once, a disruptive idea could sprout in a garage with a few million dollars. Now, a $2 billion seed round suggests a different scale of ambition.
Most of this funding will likely go toward building a “symbiotic” ecosystem: top talent and massive computing power.
The round was led by prominent venture capital firm a16z, with chip giants Nvidia and AMD also investing. This suggests Murati’s team may avoid the “hardware shortage” many AI startups face.
But this $2 billion isn’t just a badge of honor—it’s a Damocles sword. Investors demand high returns. Murati must deliver disruptive results within a set timeframe, or the valuation bubble could burst.
Exile’s “New Utopia”?
OpenAI’s safety lead, Jan Leike, publicly criticized the company for neglecting “safety” in favor of “glamorous products,” signaling internal conflicts between “speed” and “safety.” Read more in this article.
Murati’s departure and startup venture come after internal upheavals at OpenAI. Does her new company aim to create a more ideal AI development environment?
Though still secretive, Murati hinted at future plans: building multimodal AI that interacts naturally—through conversation, vision, and collaborative chaos.
In an era where OpenAI is increasingly closed, Murati emphasizes that her company will include an “open-source component” to support researchers and startups. She also promises to share top scientific results to give back to the community.
Interestingly, Meta, a major open-source contributor, is rumored to be shifting toward closed models. Read more in this report.
Another “exile,” Ilya Sutskever, announced in June 2024 the founding of Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), dedicated solely to building safe superintelligence—without commercial interests.
Both Murati and Sutskever, once at the pinnacle of AI, are now exploring very different paths—Murati balancing ideals and reality, while Sutskever pursues pure safety.
Thinking Machines Lab is a name that hints at its roots, possibly paying homage to the 1980s company Thinking Machines Corporation, known for pioneering high-performance parallel computers in supercomputing and AI.
The lab has attracted top talent, dubbed the “AI Dream Team.” See this article for details.
The most notable member is founder Mira Murati, who led core projects like ChatGPT and DALL·E at OpenAI, and briefly served as interim CEO during internal conflicts in 2023. She also worked at Tesla on Model X development.
Murati was interviewed by Wired and Emily Chang in San Francisco.
Media reports suggest Meta, which recently achieved AI talent dominance, also considered acquiring Thinking Machines Lab but ultimately did not make a formal offer.
From the recent high-profile “talent transfers” and Murati’s $2 billion seed round, it’s clear AI’s importance in this era is undisputed.
Everyone’s expectations for Thinking Machines Lab’s new products are sky-high.
References:
https://www.wired.com/story/thinking-machines-lab-mira-murati-funding/
https://www.ft.com/content/136c04f2-787b-4ec3-9e0e-11eda682d52f
https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-is-worth-12b-in-seed-round/