Thinking Machines Lab Raises $2B in Seed Round, Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati Leads the Charge

OpenAI's former CTO, Mira Murati, raised $2 billion in a seed round for her startup Thinking Machines Lab, which hasn't revealed its project yet. The move is raising eyebrows in Silicon Valley and follows a wave of top researchers leaving OpenAI to pursue their own AI moonshots. This is the largest seed round in history and highlights the changing landscape of seed funding.

OpenAI's former Chief Technology Officer, Mira Murati, has secured a record-breaking $2 billion seed round for her startup, Thinking Machines Lab. This funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz, includes participation from NVIDIA, Accel, ServiceNow, CISCO, AMD, and Jane Street, and values the company at $12 billion [1].

Thinking Machines Lab, which was founded in February 2025, aims to develop multimodal AI that interacts with humans through conversation, sight, and collaboration. The startup's first product is expected to be released within the next few months, accompanied by open-source components and research to support the broader AI community [2].

The funding round underscores Murati's ability to attract significant investment in the competitive AI sector. It also reflects the growing investor enthusiasm towards new AI startups, as seen in the first half of 2025 where U.S. startup funding surged nearly 76% to $162.8 billion, with AI accounting for about 64.1% of the total deal value [2].

Thinking Machines Lab joins a growing list of AI startups that investors believe to be a legitimate threat to established AI model developers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind. The startup's focus on building safer, more reliable AI systems for a broader range of applications has resonated with investors [2].

The massive funding round for a company with no revenue or products yet highlights the investor enthusiasm towards new AI startups. However, Thinking Machines Lab faces a challenging task in catching up with other AI labs, likely banking on novel research breakthroughs to differentiate itself [3].

Murati's departure from OpenAI followed a turbulent period where she briefly served as interim CEO during Sam Altman's temporary ouster in November 2023. Her AI career began in 2018 as VP of applied AI at OpenAI after previous roles at Tesla Inc. [3].

The funding reflects continued investor appetite for AI ventures despite market uncertainties. OpenAI recently raised $40 billion at a $300 billion valuation, while competitor Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence secured $1 billion in seed funding at a $30 billion valuation [3].

Thinking Machines Lab plans to advance "collaborative general intelligence" while maintaining AI should be "distributed as widely and equitably as possible," positioning itself as a potential challenger to established players like OpenAI and Meta Platforms Inc. [3].

References:
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/15/mira-muratis-thinking-machines-lab-is-worth-12b-in-seed-round/
[2] https://www.ainvest.com/news/thinking-machines-lab-raises-2-billion-record-seed-announces-cofounders-2507/
[3] https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/25/07/46462080/ex-openai-exec-mira-murati-lands-2-billion-seed-round-for-ai-startup-backed-by-andreessen-horowitz-nvidia-amd-other-tech-giants