Thinking Machines, the AI lab founded early last year by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is in talks to raise $1 billion at a valuation of at least $40 billion, The Information reported Thursday. Existing backer Axel is in talks to lead the financing, according to our sources and a report from The Information.
Once completed, the new round will value Thinking Machines at less than the $50 billion valuation it reportedly sought late last year.
Thinking Machines has an annual revenue run rate of more than $100 million, according to people familiar with the company’s finances. With this revenue figure, the $40 billion valuation reflects a very high earnings multiple.
Accelerator and Thinking Machines did not respond to requests for comment.
In July, the company introduced Inkling, an open-weight model that generates revenue by charging usage-based compute fees to adapt models to proprietary data on the Tinker platform.
The startup’s previous funding, a $2 billion round that was the largest seed financing in history, valued the company at $12 billion. Andreessen Horowitz led the investment, with participation from Nvidia, GV, Lightspeed, and Conviction Partners. Investors supported this round primarily based on the flow of Murati and the former OpenAI researchers who joined her.
Thinking Machines has since had some high-profile departures, with some of its co-founders returning to OpenAI, including Lilian Weng and Luke Metz.
