Thinking Machines Lab

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Wikipedia

Thinking Machines Lab Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryArtificial intelligence
FoundedFebruary 2025; 8 months ago (2025-02) in San Francisco, California
FounderMira Murati
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
United States
Key people
ProductsAI systems and platforms
Number of employees
50 (2025)[1]
Websitethinkingmachines.ai

Thinking Machines Lab Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Mira Murati, the former chief technology officer of OpenAI.[2] The company was founded in February 2025, and by July had already closed on an "outsized early-stage funding round" led by Andreessen Horowitz, raising $2 billion at a valuation of $12 billion overall from investors such as Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, and Jane Street.[3] The company is based in San Francisco and structured as a public benefit corporation.[4][5]

History

By its launch in February 2025, Thinking Machines Lab was reported to have hired about 30 researchers and engineers from competitors including OpenAI, Meta AI, and Mistral AI.[6][7][8][9][10] Its founding team members include Barret Zoph, former OpenAI VP of Research (Post-Training), Lilian Weng, former OpenAI VP, and OpenAI cofounder John Schulman, who joined after a brief stint at the lab's competitor Anthropic.[11][12] Other former OpenAI employees who have been hired include Jonathan Lachman and Andrew Tulloch (although Tulloch departed after getting recruited for Meta Superintelligence Labs).[13][14] Thinking Machines Lab's advisers include Bob McGrew, previously OpenAI's chief research officer, and Alec Radford, who was a lead researcher for OpenAI.[15][16]

On 2025-10-01, it announced Tinker, an API for fine-tuning language models. Users would submit jobs through the API for fine-tuning one of the various open-weight models supported. The Lab would run the jobs on its internal clusters and training infrastructure.[17]

Business structure

Thinking Machines Lab grants Mira Murati a deciding vote on board matters, weighted to provide her with a majority decision-making capability. Additionally, founding shareholders possess votes weighted 100 times greater than those of regular shareholders.[18]

In July 2025, Andreessen Horowitz was reported to have led the company's initial funding round, raising "about $2 billion at a valuation of $12 billion".[3][19] The government of Albania (Murati's country of origin) was also included in this round, making a $10 million investment which required an amendment to the country's 2025 budget.[20][21]

References

  1. ↑ Robison, Kylie. "Meta's AI Recruiting Campaign Finds a New Target". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2025-07-30.
  2. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (2025-02-18). "Thinking Machines Lab is ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's new startup". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-05-21.
  3. 1 2 Hu, Krystal; Soni, Aditya (2025-07-15). "Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12 billion in early-stage funding". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-07-15.
  4. ↑ Bernard, Chris (2025-02-18). "Sam Altman's Former CTO Launches OpenAI Competitor, Thinking Machine Labs". eWeek. ISSN 1530-6283. Retrieved 2025-06-06.
  5. ↑ Levy, Steven. "Mira Murati Is Ready to Tell the World What She's Working On". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2025-06-06.
  6. ↑ Bajwa, Arsheeya; Hu, Krystal; Tong, Anna; Hu, Krystal; Tong, Anna (2025-02-19). "Mira Murati's new AI startup poaches 20 OpenAI researchers". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-02-19.
  7. ↑ Eaton, Kit (2025-01-17). "OpenAI's Ex-CTO Raids Rivals for Top Team at Her Startup". Inc. Archived from the original on 2025-01-22. Retrieved 2025-01-28.
  8. ↑ Palazzolo, Stephanie; Efrati, Amir (2025-01-29). "OpenAI Tightens Grip on High End of App Market; Murati's Startup Gets a Name [Paywalled]". The Information. Retrieved 2025-01-29.
  9. ↑ Schiffer, Zoë. "Mira Murati's AI Startup Makes First Hires, Including Former OpenAI Executive". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2025-01-28.
  10. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (2025-02-18). "Thinking Machines Lab is ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's new startup". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  11. ↑ "OpenAI Co-Founder John Schulman Joins Mira Murati's Startup". The Information. Retrieved 2025-05-21.
  12. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (2024-08-06). "OpenAI co-founder Schulman leaves for Anthropic, Brockman takes extended leave". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-05-27.
  13. ↑ O'Brien, Terrence (2025-10-12). "Meta poached Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Andrew Tulloch". The Verge. Retrieved 2025-10-16.
  14. ↑ Criddle, Cristina (2025-02-18). "Former OpenAI technology chief Mira Murati launches rival start-up". Financial Times. Retrieved 2025-05-28.
  15. ↑ Tong, Anna; Hu, Krystal; Tong, Anna; Hu, Krystal (2025-04-11). "A16z eyes leading mega round in former OpenAI CTO's startup Thinking Machines, sources say". Reuters. Retrieved 2025-05-21.
  16. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (2025-04-08). "Mira Murati's AI startup gains prominent ex-OpenAI advisers". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-05-30.
  17. ↑ "Announcing Tinker". Thinking Machines Lab. Oct 1, 2025. Retrieved 2025-10-02.
  18. ↑ Palazzolo, Stephanie; Mascarenhas, Natasha. "Thinking Machines Lab CEO Has Unusual Control in Andreessen-Led Deal". The Information. Retrieved 2025-05-21.
  19. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (2025-04-10). "Mira Murati's AI startup is reportedly aiming for a massive $2B seed round". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-04-12.
  20. ↑ Saliu, Klara (2025-05-01). "Albania Enters Global AI Market; Government Invests $10 Million in "Machine Thinking Lab" Led by Albanian-American Mira Murati". RTSH English. Retrieved 2025-05-21.
  21. ↑ Knight, Will (2025-07-15). "Thinking Machines Lab Raises a Record $2 Billion, Announces Cofounders". Wired. Retrieved 2025-07-16.