Tech start-up Thinking Machines, led by Mira Murati, secures a groundbreaking $12 billion valuation during their seed funding round.
Thinking Machines Lab Raises $2 Billion in Historic Seed Round
Thinking Machines Lab, an ambitious American artificial intelligence (AI) startup, has secured a staggering $2 billion in funding, marking one of the largest seed rounds in venture capital history. The company, founded by Mira Murati, a former executive at OpenAI, aims to build "collaborative general intelligence" and has attracted top AI talent with its high salaries and commitment to open-source development.
Based in San Francisco, Thinking Machines Lab was launched in February 2023 as a public benefit corporation. The startup's leadership team includes notable figures from OpenAI, such as co-founder John Schulman, as well as other former OpenAI researchers like Jonathan Lachman and Barret Zoph. The company's advisory board boasts AI luminaries like Bob McGrew and Alec Radford.
The funding round, led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also involved investments from tech giants NVIDIA, Accel, Cisco, AMD, and Jane Street, as well as ServiceNow. The startup's valuation at closing was reported at $12 billion, up from earlier estimates near $10 billion. Albania’s government also contributed $10 million to the round.
Thinking Machines Lab's business structure gives Murati majority voting power on board matters, with founding shareholders holding votes weighted 100 times greater than regular shareholders. This strong founder control will likely enable the company to focus on its vision of building AI systems that are safer, more reliable, and applicable to a broader range of use cases.
To achieve this vision, Thinking Machines Lab plans to use the new capital to expand its research and engineering teams. The startup's first product, set to be released in the next couple of months, will focus on multimodal AI systems that can chat, see, and collaborate in human-like ways. This product will include a significant open-source component, making it accessible to researchers and startups wanting to develop custom AI models.
The company also intends to share scientific insights to advance understanding of frontier AI systems. Thinking Machines Lab's plans align with the growing trend in AI funding, as AI companies accounted for over 64% of the total deal value in the first half of 2025, contributing to a 76% increase in U.S. startup funding to $162.8 billion during this period.
In summary, Thinking Machines Lab is a high-profile, well-funded AI startup with ambitious goals towards advanced multimodal AI and an open-source approach. Led by a prominent AI leader, the company is assembling top researchers from leading institutions, with a strong focus on building safer, more reliable, and versatile AI systems. The historic seed investment round positions Thinking Machines Lab to accelerate the development of its core AI platform and make significant contributions to the AI industry.
[1] VentureBeat (2025). Thinking Machines Lab raises $2 billion to build collaborative general intelligence
[2] TechCrunch (2025). Thinking Machines Lab: The new AI startup with a $2 billion seed round and a commitment to open source
[3] CNBC (2025). Thinking Machines Lab: The AI startup that's aiming to build 'collaborative general intelligence' and has raised $2 billion
[4] The Information (2025). Thinking Machines Lab: Paying top dollar to attract top AI talent
The historic seed round of $2 billion raised by Thinking Machines Lab will be instrumental in their finance and investing efforts, allowing them to expand their research and engineering teams. The company's business model, focusing on collaborative general intelligence and an open-source approach, aligns with the current trend in technology, as AI platforms have dominated AI funding in recent years.
