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Thinking Machines Lab funding, valuation and investors
Mira Murati's AI research lab building multimodal models with open-science ethos.
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Funding, valuation & investors
Answer-first snapshotLatest funding
Seed
~$2B · July 2025
Latest known valuation
~$12B
Seed · July 2025
Total disclosed equity funding
Not publicly disclosed
Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.
Current status
private
seed
Investors in latest funding
Lead: Andreessen Horowitz
Overview
Thinking Machines Lab is an AI research company founded by Mira Murati, former CTO of OpenAI, focused on building multimodal foundation models and advancing open-science practices in frontier AI. In July 2025, the company raised approximately $2 billion in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz at roughly $12 billion post-money valuation — among the largest seed rounds in venture history per Reuters and TechCrunch. Participants reportedly included Nvidia, AMD, Accel, and Cisco, though many are outside the VCT directory. The lab had not shipped a commercial product at announcement, signaling investor bets on team and research direction over near-term revenue.
Why Thinking Machines Lab is interesting
Record ~$2B seed at ~$12B valuation for ex-OpenAI CTO's lab — a16z led before first product ship in frontier-model talent war.
Product & use cases
Thinking Machines Lab conducts frontier AI research on multimodal models and tooling, with stated commitment to open science — commercial products were not publicly launched at the time of its 2025 funding announcement.
- Enterprise and research partners seeking frontier model capabilities (future)
- Open-science collaborations on multimodal AI
- Talent recruitment hub for top AI researchers
Key facts
- Seed (Jul 2025): ~$2B led by a16z at ~$12B valuation (Reuters, TechCrunch)
- Founded by ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati
- Participants include Nvidia, AMD, Accel, Cisco per press (non-VCT)
- Pre-product at funding; open-science positioning
Funding history (newest first)
Seed
2025-07 ~$2B Valuation: ~$12BInvestors in our directory
Funds linked from Thinking Machines Lab's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.
Competitive landscape
Edge: Mira Murati's OpenAI leadership pedigree attracts researchers and capital at seed stage unmatched by typical startups.
Capital alone does not win frontier AI — compute, data, and talent retention matter. Thinking Machines must convert mega-seed into differentiated models before incumbents absorb its researchers.
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OpenAI adjacent
Murati's former employer; incumbent frontier lab.
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Anthropic direct
Frontier model lab competing for enterprise and API customers.
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Safe Superintelligence (SSI) direct
Murati co-founder Ilya Sutskever's separate lab; talent war peer.
Notable stories
- Murati left OpenAI's CTO role and raised a seed round larger than most companies' IPO proceeds — a16z bet the person, not the product, at $12B post-money (Reuters, July 2025).
Industries
Related funding articles
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FAQs about Thinking Machines Lab
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