News Summary

Thinking Machines Lab, an artificial intelligence company founded by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati and other top researchers, has raised an unprecedented $2 billion in a seed funding round, valuing the company at $12 billion. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and included investments from Nvidia, Accel, Cisco, and AMD. This funding marks the largest seed round in history, emphasizing the intense competition in the AI sector and the high value placed on AI expertise. Mira Murati, who served as OpenAI’s chief technology officer until last September, leads the company. Her cofounders include John Schulman, Barrett Zoph, Lilian Weng, Andrew Tulloch, and Luke Metz, all of whom have significant experience in AI research and development. Thinking Machines Lab plans to develop multimodal AI systems that interact with humans through conversation and other means. The company is set to release its first product, which will include open source components, within the next few months.