Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has launched Thinking Machines Lab, raising an unprecedented $2 billion in seed funding at a $10 billion valuation. While the capital alone is historic, it’s Murati’s sweeping control over the company, via supervoting shares, that’s turning heads. With an elite team of AI researchers and full founder authority, Murati signals a bold shift toward vision-driven AI development, sparking critical questions about power, oversight, and accountability in the race toward advanced, general-purpose AI systems.
Visionary Leadership Fuels Investor Confidence
TechCrunch reports that Murati has made a striking entrance into the startup world with Thinking Machines Lab. Just six months after its founding, the company secured an extraordinary $2 billion seed round at a $10 billion valuation, all without a single product in the market. This staggering investment, led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Conviction Partners and even the Albanian government, underscores investor confidence in Murati’s proven track record and elite team.
It marks one of the largest seed-stage financing rounds ever, and highlights a broader venture capital trend that is largely betting on talent over tangible deliverables in the race to build next‑generation AI systems. Despite the absence of disclosed technologies or revenue, Murati’s reputation and the strength of her assembled team have fueled investor confidence in this bold venture.
During her time at OpenAI, Murati spearheaded the development of breakthroughs like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Codex. She briefly served as interim CEO during the company’s 2023 leadership shakeup before returning to her CTO role.
Now, she leads Thinking Machines Lab, joined by top AI talent, including John Schulman as chief scientist and Barret Zoph as CTO. Together, they are building a company focused on designing AI systems that are more transparent, customizable, and capable of meaningful collaboration with humans.
Secrecy, Structure, and Strategy
What makes Thinking Machines Lab especially intriguing is its choice to operate largely in stealth mode. The company has not detailed its technical plans or product roadmap, which has led some potential backers to hesitate. Yet, others see strategic wisdom in this approach, as staying quiet can help safeguard innovations in the highly competitive AI sector.
The startup has signaled its commitment to open science, promising to share research, datasets, and model specifications, but on its terms and timeline.
The company’s governance structure also stands out. Murati reportedly holds voting rights on the board that surpass those of all other directors combined. Founding shareholders’ votes carry exceptional weight, a design intended to preserve the company’s mission and direction. However, this level of concentrated control could raise concerns about transparency and oversight, particularly as calls for regulation in AI grow louder.
The Stakes in the AI Race
This record-breaking seed round places Thinking Machines Lab in rare company alongside other high-profile ventures like Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence, which raised $1 billion within months of launching. While firms like OpenAI and xAI have attracted billions with tangible products and revenue, Murati’s startup represents a different kind of bet: one that values proven leadership and vision over immediate results.
The AI sector’s enormous market potential and the scarcity of top-tier talent have made such wagers increasingly common. For investors, the hope is that Thinking Machines Lab will not just raise impressive sums but also deliver innovations that define the next era of AI.
As the company begins transforming its resources and expertise into real-world breakthroughs, it faces the ultimate test of turning promise into performance in a field crowded with ambition and hype.
About The Author
