The profitable ventures of OpenAI alumni
A record fundraising for Mira Murati, OpenAI’s former star employee
Thinking Machines has no product, no roadmap, and not even a proper website. Yet, just four months after its launch, the US startup — which Meta and Apple reportedly considered acquiring — had no trouble raising $2 billion, twice the initially expected amount, from major Silicon Valley investment firms, according to the Financial Times and Bloomberg.
The company is already valued at $10 billion. The scale of this fundraising is unprecedented, even in the generative AI sector where money is flowing freely. The deal largely hinges on the identity of its founder: Mira Murati, former CTO of OpenAI, who rose to AI stardom following the sensational launch of ChatGPT.
Behind ChatGPT
After starting her career at Tesla, Mira Murati joined OpenAI in 2018. She notably oversaw the development of the large language models behind ChatGPT, as well as the diffusion models powering the image generator Dall-E. At the end of 2023, she was part of the small group of company executives who alerted the board of directors, questioning the strategy of CEO Sam Altman, whom they accused of neglecting the risks of rapidly advancing AI.
This warning led to Sam Altman’s abrupt ousting. Mira Murati was briefly named interim CEO but quickly distanced herself, publicly calling for her boss’ return. She was thus spared from any backlash. She left OpenAI in September 2024 to pursue her “own exploration.”
To launch Thinking Machines, Mira Murati attracted other former ChatGPT engineers, notably cofounder John Schulman, whom she appointed Chief Scientist. The startup reportedly has around 40 employees, all with experience at major AI companies.
Like Ilya Sutskever
Yet, it remains secretive about its work. It only states its goal as making “AI systems more widely understood, customizable and generally capable.” According to the Financial Times, the pitch materials shared with investors included no details on future products or financial objectives. However, The Information reports that Thinking Machines aims to build custom AI tools for businesses, using a training technique popularized by Chinese startup DeepSeek.
Mira Murati isn’t the only former OpenAI executive attracting investor attention. Before her, Ilya Sutskever had already leveraged his status as OpenAI’s former Chief Scientist. His new startup, Safe Superintelligence, raised $3 billion in one year —most notably from Andreessen Horowitz, which also invested in Thinking Machines.
In April, it was valued at $32 billion. It’s already half the valuation of Anthropic, founded in 2021 by other OpenAI alumni, which currently has $3 billion in annualized revenue. SSI has yet to reveal any product or service. Its leadership says they have no intention of launching commercial products in the short term, focusing exclusively on developing a “safe superintelligence.”