Mira Murati’s latest AI venture, Thinking Machines Lab, has generated significant buzz in the tech investment sector with its $2 billion seed funding target. This ambitious goal marks an unprecedented fundraising effort and signals a potentially rebellious phase in the artificial intelligence field.
As the former Chief Technology Officer of OpenAI and a key architect behind ChatGPT and DALL-E, Murati brings exceptional credentials to her entrepreneurial venture. Here’s an in-depth look at this startup’s significance and ambitious funding efforts in today’s AI landscape.
From OpenAI to her own AI venture – Thinking Machines Lab
Mira Murati has emerged as one of the most influential leaders in contemporary artificial intelligence. She built a remarkable career before founding Thinking Machines Lab in February 2025.
Murati’s career spans various industries, giving her extensive technical experience. Before her prominent role in AI, she worked at Tesla as a senior product manager, developing the dual-motor Model S, Model X, and Tesla’s Autopilot technology. This experience with practical AI applications fueled her passion for the field.
Her 6½-year tenure at OpenAI cemented her status as an AI innovator. As CTO since May 2022, she has led teams that created groundbreaking technologies like GPT-3, GPT-4, DALL-E, and ChatGPT. Her leadership proved so vital that she stepped in as interim CEO during OpenAI’s November 2023 leadership crisis after Sam Altman’s brief dismissal.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, writing for Time’s 2023 list of emerging leaders, praised Murati’s “ability to build teams with technical expertise, commercial insight, and a strong understanding of mission importance.” Her departure from OpenAI to establish Thinking Machines Lab marks one of the AI sector’s most significant talent shifts.
$2B seed round ambition with no product or revenue
The reported $2 billion seed funding target represents a paradigm shift in startup financing and demonstrates extraordinary investor confidence in Murati and AI’s future. According to Business Insider reports from April 2025, Thinking Machines Lab doubled its initial fundraising goal from $1 billion to over $2 billion in less than two months. If successful, this round would value the company “at least $10 billion” — despite having no product or revenue.
This fundraising effort stands out for its timing and scale. Even in today’s AI-focused investment landscape, $2 billion for a seed round is unprecedented, potentially becoming history’s most significant. This follows other massive early rounds by AI leaders, including OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s $1 billion raise for his Safe Superintelligence venture.
The expanded fundraising target reflects current market realities: intense investor enthusiasm for generative AI, scarcity of leadership talent with Murati’s experience, and substantial capital needs for training advanced AI models and recruiting top talent.
The dream team behind Thinking Machines Lab
Beyond Murati herself, Thinking Machines Lab has assembled an exceptional team from AI’s leading institutions. The startup has recruited 30 top researchers and engineers from competitors like OpenAI, Meta, and Mistral.
Key team members include Bob McGrew, former chief research officer at OpenAI; Alec Radford, a distinguished researcher known for numerous OpenAI breakthroughs; John Schulman, ChatGPT’s co-lead developer; Jonathan Lachman, ex-head of special projects at OpenAI; Barret Zoph, ChatGPT co-creator; and Alexander Kirillov, who collaborated with Murati on ChatGPT’s voice mode.
Making AI systems “more widely understood, customisable and generally capable”
While detailed product information remains scarce, Murati has outlined a vision to distinguish the company in the competitive AI arena. In her initial blog post, she described creating AI systems that are “more comprehensible, customisable, and generally capable” than current offerings.
The company aims to develop systems that are powerful yet intuitive, secure, and versatile enough for various industries. Murati emphasises “user alignment,” designing AI that aligns with genuine human values and needs, which could set them apart in a market increasingly focused on safety, interpretability, and societal impact.
The ability to customise models for specific sectors like healthcare, finance, and education could give Thinking Machines Lab an edge with enterprise clients. This strategic positioning comes as global AI regulation advances, with new frameworks like the EU’s Digital Markets Act and AI Act reshaping the competitive landscape.
Future? Building the next OpenAI
Thinking Machines Lab reflects the AI industry’s evolving dynamics. The company exemplifies the trend of “talent-led startups,” where leading researchers and engineers leave established firms to launch focused, independent ventures with substantial investment backing.
This venture’s outcome will reveal much about the sustainability of large investments in early-stage AI firms and talent-led startups’ ability to compete with established players. Whether Thinking Machines Lab becomes “the next OpenAI” or charts its course, Murati’s vision for more flexible and transparent AI development could redefine expectations for responsible, future-ready artificial intelligence.
