Former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati’s new venture, Thinking Machines Lab, has secured a historic $2 billion in seed funding, catapulting the six-month-old artificial intelligence startup to a massive $10 billion valuation. The financing, led by venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, shatters all previous records for a seed-stage investment, signaling unprecedented confidence from Silicon Valley.
This monumental bet is a direct endorsement of the powerhouse team Murati has assembled. By poaching elite researchers from industry titans including OpenAI, Google, and Meta, Murati has rapidly positioned her new company as a formidable contender in the high-stakes race to develop the next generation of AI.
The move solidifies the influence of a growing cohort of well-funded and powerful companies founded by the architects of the generative AI boom. Now set to compete directly with their former employers, these alumni-led ventures are fundamentally reshaping the technology landscape.
The Rise of the ‘OpenAI Mafia’
The emergence of Thinking Machines Lab is the latest and perhaps most significant chapter in the story of the “OpenAI Mafia,” a diaspora of talent that is redefining the AI industry. Other major spinouts include Anthropic, founded by Dario Amodei, and Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), started by former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. So far, approximately 75 former OpenAI employees have founded around 30 new startups, collectively raising nearly $8 billion.
Murati has assembled an all-star roster that justifies the immense valuation. OpenAI co-founder John Schulman has joined as Chief Scientist, a significant move he made after a brief five-month stint at rival Anthropic. He is joined by other key OpenAI alumni, including Barret Zoph as CTO and former Head of Special Projects Jonathan Lachman. The team is further bolstered by top researchers from DeepMind, Meta, and Mistral AI.
The company’s formation followed Murati’s own high-profile departure from OpenAI in September 2024. She left, in her own words, to create the space for “my own exploration.” Her exit, along with other key leaders like Bob McGrew—who now serves on the startup’s advisory board—was part of a wave of departures that has since seeded the AI ecosystem with new, well-funded challengers.
A Multi-Billion Dollar War for Talent
The frenzy surrounding Thinking Machines Lab highlights an intense battle for top talent, driven by a stark scarcity of expertise. Estimates suggest fewer than 1,000 individuals globally possess the skills to build cutting-edge foundational models. This has led to aggressive “acqui-hiring,” where companies buy entire startups primarily for their staff.
Microsoft’s $650 million deal to absorb most of the team from Inflection AI is a prime example of this trend of acquiring AI startups for their technology teams. Sachin Arora, a partner at PwC India, Sachin, “We’re at an inflection point where foundational AI talent is in such short supply and high demand that companies are willing to buy entire teams to accelerate their AI roadmap,”. This environment has forced tech giants to change their playbooks. After failing in takeover discussions with several AI startups, including Thinking Machines Lab, Meta has radically pivoted its artificial intelligence strategy to focus on poaching top executives.
The competition is fierce, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman accusing Meta of offering signing bonuses as high as $100 million. Altman stated that he has “heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor”. This aggressive spending appears to be a direct response to Meta’s own internal struggles and talent drain.
Venture Capital Goes All-In on AI
The scale of the Thinking Machines Lab investment underscores a dramatic shift in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) investment landscape. While the startup was reportedly seeking a more conventional $100 million in late 2024, the final $2 billion figure resets expectations. According to an analysis by Crunchbase News, it is by far the largest seed round ever recorded, dwarfing previous records which were in the $200 million to $450 million range.
This reflects a broader market trend where venture capitalists are concentrating capital into fewer, but much larger, investment rounds for established players. According to Technext, AI startups captured a record $73.1 billion in the first quarter of 2025, but the number of deals fell to a five-year low.
This strategy is driven by the high failure rate of new AI ventures, prompting investors to make massive bets on teams with a proven track record. The investment in Thinking Machines Lab, alongside the $2 billion round that valued Ilya Sutskever’s SSI at $32 billion, epitomizes this new era of mega-deals.
Navigating a Crowded and Competitive Arena
Thinking Machines Lab enters a market where the performance gaps between leading models are narrowing considerably, making strategic differentiation critical. Competitors are already carving out their niches; Anthropic is focused on enterprise safety, Mistral AI on open-source models, and Google on deep integration with its ecosystem.
Murati’s venture aims to distinguish itself by focusing on human-AI collaboration and scientific discovery. During its official launch, the company explained its mission is to build models at the frontier of science and programming, prioritizing long-term security over shortcuts. In a post on X, Murati stated her goal is to “advance AI by making it broadly useful and understandable through solid foundations, open science, and practical applications.” To ensure this vision remains intact, she has reportedly structured the company to give herself a deciding vote on all board matters.
This combination of a clear mission, an elite team, and unprecedented financial backing places Thinking Machines Lab in a unique position. It is not just another well-funded startup; it is a new center of gravity in the AI universe, with the potential to set a new course for the entire industry, independent of the established tech giants.
