Thinking Machines hires ex-OpenAI team
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Mira Murati just closed a $2 billion seed round for her new AI company, Thinking Machines Lab, pushing its valuation to $10 billion, even though the company’s only been alive for six months and hasn’t shared anything about what it’s building. The deal just wrapped up, and people directly involved reportedly say it’s one of the largest early-stage rounds ever done in Silicon Valley. That’s not just rare. That’s almost unheard of. The startup, based in San Francisco, hasn’t launched a product, released a prototype, or even given investors a roadmap. Still, the round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with backing from Sarah Guo through her firm Conviction Partners, according to the Financial Times. No business model, no demo, no forecast — just Mira and her reputation. And somehow, that was enough. Thinking Machines hires ex-OpenAI team with no clear product The company has brought in a long list of familiar names from OpenAI, including John Schulman, who co-founded it, Jonathan Lachman, who led special projects, and former vice presidents Barret Zoph and Lilian Weng. These people worked with Mira at OpenAI before she walked away in September 2023, just weeks before the company tried to kick out CEO Sam Altman. At OpenAI, Mira led work on ChatGPT, the Dall-E image tool, and the newer voice features that were added right before she left. Before that, she was at Tesla, managing product for the Model X. She didn’t go quietly either. People close to the leadership crisis at OpenAI allegedly said Mira was one of the executives who questioned Altman’s leadership before the failed board coup in November. For a minute, she was even named interim CEO before Altman returned. Now, she’s calling all the shots at Thinking Machines. After the new round, she holds voting power on the board…
