Thinking Machines, an AI company founded by former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, is currently in talks with investors for a new funding round. According to The Information, the company aims to raise $1 billion at a valuation of at least $40 billion, with existing shareholder Accel discussing leading the round.
If this round of transactions is completed, Thinking Machines' valuation will be below the $50 billion level it reportedly sought at the end of last year. However, based on the current disclosed revenue scale, this valuation remains very high.
Annual revenue exceeding $100 million
According to insiders, Thinking Machines' current annualized revenue run rate has exceeded $100 million. At this rate, even if the company is valued at $40 billion, its revenue multiple remains quite high.
In July this year, Thinking Machines launched the open-weight model Inkling. The model offers a pay-per-compute service through the Tinker platform, allowing customers to adapt the model on their proprietary data—a key source of the company’s current revenue.
The previous round of funding valued the company at $12 billion.
Prior to this, Thinking Machines completed a $2 billion funding round, one of the largest in seed-stage history. At the time, the company was valued at $12 billion, with Andreessen Horowitz leading the round and participation from Nvidia, GV, Lightspeed, and Conviction Partners.
At that time, one of the key focuses of investors was Murati’s own background and the appeal brought by the addition of several former OpenAI researchers to the team.
Some co-founders have left.
However, Thinking Machines subsequently saw several key members leave. Reports indicate that some co-founders have departed the company, including Lilian Weng and Luke Metz, who both later returned to OpenAI.
As of now, neither Accel nor Thinking Machines has responded immediately to requests for comment.