Posted on 06/24/2025 6:56:44 PM PDT by nwrep
Mira Murati just closed a $2 billion seed round for her new AI company, Thinking Machines Lab, pushing its valuation to $10 billion, even though the company’s only been alive for six months and hasn’t shared anything about what it’s building.
The deal just wrapped up, and people directly involved reportedly say it’s one of the largest early-stage rounds ever done in Silicon Valley. That’s not just rare. That’s almost unheard of.
The startup, based in San Francisco, hasn’t launched a product, released a prototype, or even given investors a roadmap.
Still, the round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with backing from Sarah Guo through her firm Conviction Partners, according to the Financial Times. No business model, no demo, no forecast — just Mira and her reputation. And somehow, that was enough.
Mira is originally from Albania. At OpenAI, as CTO, Mira led work on ChatGPT, the Dall-E image tool, and the newer voice features that were added right before she left. Before that, she was at Tesla, managing product for the Model X. She didn’t go quietly either.
Despite no product, no pitch deck, and no actual tech revealed, Mira raised billions. She didn’t even pretend to share financials. One investor told Financial Times she didn’t explain the company’s financial plan or business structure during the pitch. Another one who passed said the whole thing was “too secretive.”
So far, Thinking Machines Lab hasn’t said when it will release anything or what its first project will be. The only thing it has shown the public is Mira’s name, her team of ex-OpenAI talent, and now, a $2 billion runway to figure the rest out. Investors who didn’t join said they needed more details. But the ones who backed it clearly didn’t care.
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Thank you very much and God bless you.
I just had an AI idea. It should be worth at least a billion dollars. No . . . wait . . nah, it’s just gas on my stomach. Darn! I was just this close to having a brainstorm of an idea.
She needs a black turtle neck, so she can emulate the Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Holmes, Tech-Wiz guru look.
Damn, the startups I worked at had seed rounds of $100k to $250k.
She sure has a sterling resume.
Ermira "Mira" Murati (born December 16, 1988, in Vlorë, Albania) is an Albanian-American engineer and technology executive renowned for her contributions to artificial intelligence (AI). She served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of OpenAI from May 2022 to September 2024, leading the development of groundbreaking AI technologies, including ChatGPT, DALL-E, and GPT-4. Murati earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Colby College (2011) and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College (2012).Her career includes roles at Goldman Sachs, Zodiac Aerospace, Tesla (Senior Product Manager for Model X), and Leap Motion. In February 2025, she founded Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup focused on customizable and capable AI systems, raising significant funding and achieving a valuation of $10 billion.
Recognized by Time as one of the "100 Most Influential People in AI 2024," Murati is a vocal advocate for ethical AI development and regulation.
It’s her image that seduces and once she throws around inside/out and outside/in ideas people will catch on.
FWIW, BBAI was up like 25% today. Watch the small cap space for AI. You can make some $$$ on the right picks that have room to run. THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE, just opinion about the sector.
It’s like the dot com days of the 90s again.
Company name? Nope...
Elizabeth Holmes clone? Yep...
Any product at all? Nope....
Stock price....soaring.
Not that it matters, but is she only wearing that open neck white blouse?
(sarc!!)
Ask a native Greek about Albanian scammers. They’ll give you an earful... it’s in their blood!
It’s the new, new economy!
All these OpenAI people did was productize open research that Google data scientists created. They aren’t geniuses. Google is going to crush OpenAI and Murati in the end.
Another female “genius” fraudster.
The Elizabeth Holmes business model?
You beat me to it. Spot on.
SHE WAS AT TESLA——
SHE DIDN’T GO QUIETLY
MUSK DOESN’T FIRE PEOPLE WILLY NILLY
SURE WOULD LIKE BACKGROUND ON THIS
She’s surely worth something; I just don’t know about ten billion.
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