Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati unveils AI startup Thinking Machines Lab, which she's leading as CEO, with Barret Zoph as CTO and John Schulman as chief scientist

- “Instead of focusing solely on making fully autonomous AI systems, we are excited to build multimodal systems that work …

Axios 2025-02-19 Ina Fried

Context & Ripple Effects

Thinking Machines Lab’s debut follows earlier reports that Murati was raising for a proprietary-model venture, turning a prospective founder-led effort into an operating lab with a defined leadership team. Its stated emphasis on multimodal systems that work with people distinguishes its initial positioning from a sole focus on autonomy.

The launch also set up a rapid test of the market’s willingness to finance elite AI teams: days later, reports said the company was seeking a $1B round at roughly a $9B valuation, and subsequent coverage recorded a $2B seed at a $12B valuation.

First-order effects

Murati, Barret Zoph, and John Schulman now form an independent AI lab’s executive and scientific leadership, giving the venture an immediate platform to recruit, raise capital, and define its research agenda.
The company’s initial product thesis centers on multimodal systems designed to collaborate with people, setting the basis for how it presents itself to prospective users and investors.

Second-order effects

The new lab adds another well-credentialed buyer for scarce AI researchers, model-development infrastructure, and startup financing, increasing competitive pressure on established labs and other newly formed AI ventures.
The reported fundraising process makes team pedigree and a differentiated product thesis central valuation inputs for investors backing frontier-model startups.

Third-order effects

If former leaders of major AI labs can repeatedly assemble large independent companies, frontier-model development may become less concentrated in incumbent organizations and more dependent on mobile talent networks.
Later Google Cloud compute access for TML illustrates how independent labs can become major cloud-and-chip customers, tying the next generation of AI companies more closely to infrastructure providers.

The trend: This is part of the rise of founder-led AI labs that combine concentrated technical talent with large outside funding and rented compute to challenge incumbent research organizations.

Discussion

@miramurati Mira Murati on x
I started Thinking Machines Lab alongside a remarkable team of scientists, engineers, and builders. We're building three things: - Helping people adapt AI systems to work for their specific needs - Developing strong foundations to build more capable AI systems - Fostering a cult…
@thinkymachines @thinkymachines on x
Today, we are excited to announce Thinking Machines Lab (https://thinkingmachines.ai), an artificial intelligence research and product company. We are scientists, engineers, and builders behind some of the most widely used AI products and libraries, including ChatGPT, http://Cha…
@karpathy Andrej Karpathy on x
Congrats on company launch to Thinking Machines! Very strong team, a large fraction of whom were directly involved with and built the ChatGPT miracle. Wonderful people, an easy follow, and wishing the team all the best!
@dchaplot Devendra Chaplot on x
Career Update: Incredibly fortunate and excited to be part of the founding team at Thinking Machines Lab! https://thinkingmachines.ai/ Join us: https://6wajk07p.paperform.co/ [image]
@erikbryn Erik Brynjolfsson on x
Check out the amazing team @miramurati has assembled at Thinking Machines Lab. I expect big things from them.
@jacobsteinhardt Jacob Steinhardt on x
New company founded by people who I like. Good to see the focus on openness and transparency — this will help the scientific community and public better understand the behavior and implications of AI.
@lilianweng Lilian Weng on x
This is something we have been cooking together for a few months and I'm very excited to announce it today. Thinking Machines Lab is my next adventure and I'm feeling very proud and lucky to start it with a group of talented colleagues. Learn more about our vision at
@stochasticchasm @stochasticchasm on x
Exciting! [image]
@chrszegedy Christian Szegedy on x
I feel old: my first association was: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/...
@nearcyan Near on x
@thinkymachines is your x handle typod i dont know if thinky machines has the same vibe
@kipperrii @kipperrii on x
i am a respecter of this company and the individuals in it!
@shiringhaffary Shirin Ghaffary on x
NEW: Mira Murati's new startup, Thinking Machines Lab, unveiled new details about what it will do: build multimodal AI models and products Already hired over a dozen frmr OpenAI employees including John Schulman, Lilian Weng, Barett Zoph More here: https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@_alex_kirillov_ Alexander Kirillov on x
I have joined @thinkymachines to make multimodality go beep-boop!
@nim_chimpsky_ Nim on x
When their font looks like this you know they're raising $2b at $10b post [image]
@kimmonismus @kimmonismus on x
Thinking machine labs: Mira Murati reveals her science company. It's more about research than developing an own frontier model
@chipro Chip Huyen on x
Finally!!! An AI frontier lab run by adults. Congrats to @miramurati, @johnschulman2, @barret_zoph, @Luke_Metz, and the rest of the stellar team! Fingers crossed for less AGI and more cool products 🙏
@sschoenholz Sam Schoenholz on x
I had an amazing couple years at openai, and couldn't have asked for a better place to work and do research. Now I'm excited to try to build something from the ground up with an outrageously stacked group of colleagues.
@jonlachman Jonathan Lachman on x
I am excited and beyond grateful to be joining the founding team of Thinking Machines Lab, a new AI research and product company led by 👑 @miramurati , alongside a remarkable group of colleagues from @OpenAI , @AnthropicAI , https://character.ai/, @GoogleDeepMind, @MistralAI,
@kateclarktweets Kate Clark on x
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati reveals plans for her new startup, Thinking Machine Labs. Of the nearly 30 current staff members listed in the company's blog post today, more than a dozen were previously at OpenAI, per @shiringhaffary. https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@luke_metz Luke Metz on x
Super excited to share what we've been working on. It's a privilege to be working with such an amazing team!
@katie_roof Katie Roof on x
In recent months, she has asked investors for $1B+
@erinkwoo Erin Woo on x
pleased to report that the twitter handle of mira murati's extremely confidential top secret new startup is “thinkymachines” and follows exactly one account: @SFBARTalert [image]
@johnschulman2 John Schulman on x
Excited to build a new AI research lab with some of my favorite former colleagues and some great new ones. Looking forward to sharing more in the coming weeks.

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