Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, has achieved a record-breaking $2 billion seed funding round, reaching a post-investment valuation of $12 billion. This funding marks one of the largest early-stage investments in Silicon Valley history. The round was led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from tech giants like NVIDIA and AMD, as well as Accel and Jane Street.
The company has maintained secrecy about its specific business operations, although Murati revealed plans to launch a product within months. The product will feature open-source components aimed at helping researchers and startups develop customized AI models. Murati emphasized the development of a "multimodal AI" capable of interacting naturally with humans and the world through conversation and visual means.
Thinking Machines Lab is actively expanding its team, having recruited talent from OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Mistral. Murati, renowned for her work on OpenAI's ChatGPT and other core products, left OpenAI in September to pursue her own ventures.
The involvement of major investors like NVIDIA and AMD highlights their confidence in the AI industry's potential, as both companies supply essential computing hardware for AI model development.
