Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines raises $2 billion in a16z-led round

July 15 (Reuters) - Thinking Machines Lab, the artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati, said on Tuesday that it has raised $2 billion in funding.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led the round that also saw participation from AI chip giant Nvidia, Accel, ServiceNow, Cisco, AMD and Jane Street, the startup said.

The massive funding round for a company launched only in February, with no revenue or products yet, underscores Murati's ability to attract investors in a sector where top executives have become coveted targets in an escalating talent war.

Thinking Machines has said it wants to build artificial intelligence systems that are safer, more reliable and aimed at a broader number of applications than rivals. Nearly two-thirds of its team at launch comprised of former OpenAI employees.

Murati, who started Thinking Machines after an abrupt exit from OpenAI last September, is among a growing list of former executives from the ChatGPT maker who have launched AI startups.

Another two, Dario Amodei's Anthropic and Ilya Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence, have both attracted former OpenAI researchers and raised billions of dollars in funding.

Investor enthusiasm toward new AI startups has stayed strong, despite some questions about tech industry spending. That helped U.S. startup funding surge nearly 76% to $162.8 billion in the first half of 2025, with AI accounting for about 64.1% of the total deal value, according to a Pitchbook report.