She Was CEO of OpenAI for 2 Days. Now Her Secretive AI Startup Has Raised $12 Billion. Mira Murati, founder and CEO of Thinking Machine Labs, worked at OpenAI as the chief technology officer for six years.
By Erin Davis
Mira Murati spent six and a half years at OpenAI as its chief technology officer (CTO) before stepping down in September 2024. Now, her AI startup Thinking Machines Lab (TML), which was founded in February, closed a $2 billion seed round this week that values the startup at $12 billion, a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
TML has yet to launch any products, at least publicly. But on Tuesday, Murati said on X that the company would be sharing its first product "in the next couple of months."
Related: This New AI Startup Led By a Former OpenAI Exec Is Offering $500,000 Salaries
"We're building multimodal AI that works with how you naturally interact with the world - through conversation, through sight, through the messy way we collaborate," Murati wrote. "We're excited that in the next couple months we'll be able to share our first product, which will include a significant open source component and be useful for researchers and startups developing custom models."
The deal was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Nvidia, Accel, ServiceNow, CISCO, AMD, and Jane Street, Murati wrote. She also noted that TML is hiring.
"We're always looking for extraordinary talent that learns by doing, turning research into useful things," she wrote. "We believe AI should serve as an extension of individual agency and, in the spirit of freedom, be distributed as widely and equitably as possible. We hope this vision resonates with those who share our commitment to advancing the field. If so, join us. https://thinkingmachines.paperform.co."
Related: Here's How Much a Typical Salesforce Employee Makes in a Year
According to federal filings obtained by Business Insider, several TML employees are earning around $500,000 in compensation.
Thinking Machines Lab exists to empower humanity through advancing collaborative general intelligence.
— Mira Murati (@miramurati) July 15, 2025
We're building multimodal AI that works with how you naturally interact with the world - through conversation, through sight, through the messy way we collaborate. We're…
Although she was CTO of OpenAI, Murati spent two days as the interim CEO after the current chief executive and co-founder, Sam Altman, was forced out by the board in November 2023.
After a drama-filled couple of days, Altman returned to his role. Murati, meanwhile, left OpenAI about a year later. Altman has said Murati was instrumental in the creation of ChatGPT.
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