Meet Mira Murati, Ex-OpenAI CTO Building AI Startup Thinking Machines - Business Insider

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# Meet Mira Murati, the former OpenAI CTO raising $2 billion for her secretive AI startup

By[Samantha Stokes](https://www.businessinsider.com/author/samantha-stokes)

![Mira Murati](https://i.insider.com/680697cbc6ad288d147eb5e3?width=700)

Mira Murati is working on a secretive AI startup called Thinking Machines Lab.Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Apr 23, 2025, 5:00 AM ET

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- Murati founded her AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, in 2024 and seeks a record-breaking $2B seed.
- Before that, she was OpenAI's CTO and served as interim CEO when Sam Altman was ousted in 2023.
- Earlier in her career, Murati worked on Tesla's Model X and at augmented reality startup Ultraleap.

Mira Murati is the talk of Silicon Valley.

Murati made plenty of headlines in 2023 and 2024 amid the turmoil and [brain drain](https://www.businessinsider.com/openai-talent-exodus-joke-tech-world-mira-murati-sam-altman-2024-9) at OpenAI. And in early 2025, she's already grabbing more attention for raising a massive new round of funding for her new AI startup.

The 36-year-old is building [Thinking Machines Lab](https://www.businessinsider.com/mira-murati-announces-new-startup-thinking-machine-labs-2025-2), the secretive AI startup she launched in late 2024 after leaving OpenAI, where she served as chief technology officer. Murati hasn't revealed many details on what the startup is developing, but [in a recent blog post,](https://thinkingmachines.ai/) shared that the company is developing AI models focused on human and AI collaboration.

Thinking Machines Lab is currently seeking [$2 billion in seed funding](https://www.businessinsider.com/mira-murati-new-ai-startup-thinking-machines-funding-2025-4), Business Insider first reported, which could be the [largest seed round in history.](https://www.businessinsider.com/mira-murati-big-tech-put-thinking-machines-lab-venture-capital-2025-4) The round could value the startup at more than $10 billion, two sources told BI.

In January 2025, BI reported that Murati's startup was [seeking $1 billion in seed funding](https://www.businessinsider.com/mira-murati-new-startup-thinking-machine-labs-valuation-2025-2) at a $9 billion valuation.

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