Thinking Machines reveals strategy: Mira Murati's lab will build custom AI to help businesses make money
Jun 26, 2025
Key Points
- Mira Murati's Thinking Machines raised $2 billion at a $10 billion valuation in under five months, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and others.
- The company positions itself as a commercial tool to help businesses make money, departing from existential AI rhetoric that dominates the sector.
- Murati's ability to attract and retain researchers will determine competitive advantage as Meta aggressively recruits top AI talent including OpenAI researchers.
Summary
Mira Murati's newly founded lab, Thinking Machines, raised $2 billion at a $10 billion valuation in less than five months, with backing from Andreessen Horowitz and other investors. The company aims to build custom AI that helps businesses make more money.
This is the first concrete signal of Murati's startup strategy after leaving OpenAI. The speed of the raise underscores investor appetite for AI talent with her pedigree and execution track record. The focus on commercial returns marks a deliberate pivot from the existential or transformative language that has dominated AI discourse. Thinking Machines is positioning itself as a commercial tool rather than a bet on AGI timelines or world-changing technology.
The valuation places the company at the same tier as OpenAI when it last raised capital, and the capital base gives Murati significant runway to build products and hire. Whether the $2 billion translates to sustainable competitive advantage depends on how effectively she can deliver on the money-making premise. That is a narrower but more measurable claim than most AI labs have made at this stage.
This announcement arrives as Meta is aggressively recruiting AI researchers, including three OpenAI Zurich researchers who co-authored the original vision transformer paper. Murati's ability to attract and retain researchers will matter as much as her capital position.