In Silicon Valley, Thinking Machines Lab, a new company of former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is quickly becoming the focus of investors. According to Business Insider, the startup, which has been established less than a year ago, is raising $1 billion in financing, with a valuation expected to reach an astonishing $9 billion, equivalent to about 65.357 billion yuan. This valuation is a phoenix among startups, especially in the highly competitive artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
Murati has worked at OpenAI for six and a half years and is responsible for the development of several AI projects including ChatGPT. After a brief period of board turmoil in November 2023, she returned to her position as CTO. However, the experience at OpenAI has not stopped there. Murati's departure has sparked widespread discussion, with her newly-established company Thinking Machines Lab debuting last week, marking her new voyage.
In her blog, Murati made it clear that Thinking Machines Lab’s goal is to become a laboratory for AI research and products, aiming to promote the popularity and development of artificial intelligence. She stressed that it hopes to make AI systems easier to understand, have stronger customization capabilities, and show higher versatility. To achieve this, Murati has attracted many top engineers and AI researchers from companies such as OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic, including John Schulman, co-founder of ChatGPT and several experts who have participated in ChatGPT development.
Not only Murati, but other former OpenAI executives also started their own companies after leaving. For example, former chief scientist Ilya Sutskevi established Safe Superintelligence after resigning in May 2024. In addition, Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei founded Anthropic as early as 2021. These dynamics show that executives leaving OpenAI continue to play an important role in the AI field.
Murati's Thinking Machines Lab is not only promising in valuation, but also has the potential to play a key role in the future development of AI. With the continuous advancement of AI technology, Thinking Machines Lab is expected to become an important force in promoting innovation in this field.