Thinking Machines Lab

Thinking Machines Lab Inc.
TypePrivate (Benefit corporation)
IndustryArtificial intelligence
FoundedFebruary 2025; 1 year ago (2025-02) in San Francisco, California, US
FounderMira Murati
Headquarters2300 Harrison Street,
San Francisco, California, US
Key people
ProductsAI systems and platforms
Number of employees
100 (2026)
Websitethinkingmachines.ai

Thinking Machines Lab Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) startup founded by Mira Murati, the former chief technology officer of OpenAI. Their flagship model is Inkling, an open weights large language model.

The company was founded in February 2025, and by July had completed an early-stage funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, raising $2 billion at a valuation of $12 billion overall from investors such as Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, and Jane Street. The company is based in San Francisco and structured as a public benefit corporation.

Inkling released under the Apache License on July 15, 2026, with 975 billion parameters; the company released Inkling Small, a distilled 276-billion parameter model with similar performance, the same month. The model was partially developed using Chinese open weights models DeepSeek-V3 for its foundation and Moonshot AI's Kimi K2.5 for post-training synthetic data. At the time, Inkling was considered the largest and most powerful open weights model released outside of China, exceeding Nvidia's Nemotron 3 Ultra.

Thinking Machines launched Tinker, an API for fine-tuning open weights models, in October 2025. As of August 2026, Tinker supports open models families Inkling, Qwen, and Nemotron, and models DeepSeek-V3.1, GLM-5.3, Kimi K2.6, and gpt-oss.

History

By its launch in February 2025, Thinking Machines Lab was reported to have hired about 30 researchers and engineers from competitors including OpenAI, Meta AI, and Mistral AI. Its founding team members include Barret Zoph, former OpenAI VP of Research (Post-Training), Lilian Weng, former OpenAI VP, OpenAI cofounder John Schulman, who joined after a brief stint at the lab's competitor Anthropic, and Luke Metz, a member of OpenAI's technical staff.

In January 2026, Zoph and Metz departed the startup to return to OpenAI.

Other former OpenAI employees who have been hired include Jonathan Lachman and Andrew Tulloch (although Tulloch departed after getting recruited for Meta Superintelligence Labs). Thinking Machines Lab's advisers include Bob McGrew, previously OpenAI's chief research officer, and Alec Radford, who was a lead researcher for OpenAI.

In March 2026, Thinking Machines Lab announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA involving an undisclosed investment and a multi-year agreement to deploy one gigawatt of Vera Rubin computing capacity.

In August 2026, the company moved its headquarters to the office building 2300 Harrison St, in San Francisco's Mission District.

Products

On October 1, 2025, Thinking Machines Lab announced Tinker, an API for fine-tuning language models. Users would submit jobs through the API for fine-tuning one of the various open-weight models supported. The Lab would run the jobs on its internal clusters and training infrastructure. As of August 2026, Tinker supports open models families Inkling, Qwen, and Nemotron, and models DeepSeek-V3.1, GLM-5.3, Kimi K2.6, and gpt-oss.

Thinking Machines Lab released its large language model Inkling on July 15, 2026, under the Apache License, with 975 billion parameters. The model drew from Chinese open weights models DeepSeek-V3 for its architecture and Moonshot AI's Kimi K2.5 for post-training synthetic data. Media outlets described Inkling as the leading non-Chinese open-weights model, ahead of Nvidia's Nemotron, Mistral AI's models and, Google DeepMind's Gemma, but noting a lag behind China's open-weights releases by Z.ai, DeepSeek, MiniMax Group, and Xiaomi MiMo.

Inkling Small, a 276-billion parameter model with comparable performance to Inkling, was released by the company on July 31, 2026.

Business structure

Thinking Machines Lab grants Mira Murati a deciding vote on board matters, weighted to provide her with a majority decision-making capability. Additionally, founding shareholders possess votes weighted 100 times greater than those of regular shareholders.

In July 2025, Andreessen Horowitz was reported to have led the company's initial funding round, raising "about $2 billion at a valuation of $12 billion". The government of Albania (Murati's country of origin) was also included in this round, making a $10 million investment which required an amendment to the country's 2025 budget.

References

  1. 1 2 Bernard, Chris (February 18, 2025). "Sam Altman's Former CTO Launches OpenAI Competitor, Thinking Machine Labs". eWeek. ISSN 1530-6283. Retrieved June 6, 2025.
  2. ↑ Metz, Cade; Huang, Kalley; Isaac, Mike (January 22, 2026). "The A.I. Start-Up Soap Opera Riveting Silicon Valley". The New York Times. Retrieved January 25, 2026.
  3. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (February 18, 2025). "Thinking Machines Lab is ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's new startup". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  4. 1 2 Hu, Krystal; Soni, Aditya (July 15, 2025). "Mira Murati's AI startup Thinking Machines valued at $12 billion in early-stage funding". Reuters. Retrieved July 15, 2025.
  5. ↑ Levy, Steven. "Mira Murati Is Ready to Tell the World What She's Working On". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved June 6, 2025.
  6. 1 2 Cai, Kenrick (July 15, 2026). "AI startup Thinking Machines launches an open-weight AI model". Reuters. Retrieved July 15, 2026.
  7. 1 2 Ghaffary, Shirin (July 15, 2026). "Murati's Thinking Machines Releases First AI Model for Broad Use". Bloomberg News. Retrieved July 15, 2026.
  8. 1 2 Knight, Will (July 15, 2026). "Thinking Machines Lab Drops Its First Model". Wired. Retrieved July 15, 2026.
  9. 1 2 Bastian, Matthias (July 16, 2026). "Ex-OpenAI CTO Murati's Thinking Machines drops Inkling, a 975B parameter model that leads US labs but trails China". The Decoder. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
  10. 1 2 "Sign in". auth.thinkingmachines.ai. Retrieved August 29, 2026.
  11. ↑ Bajwa, Arsheeya; Hu, Krystal; Tong, Anna; Hu, Krystal; Tong, Anna (February 19, 2025). "Mira Murati's new AI startup poaches 20 OpenAI researchers". Reuters. Retrieved February 19, 2025.
  12. ↑ Eaton, Kit (January 17, 2025). "OpenAI's Ex-CTO Raids Rivals for Top Team at Her Startup". Inc. Archived from the original on January 22, 2025. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
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  14. ↑ Schiffer, Zoë. "Mira Murati's AI Startup Makes First Hires, Including Former OpenAI Executive". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved January 28, 2025.
  15. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (February 18, 2025). "Thinking Machines Lab is ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati's new startup". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 23, 2025.
  16. ↑ "OpenAI Co-Founder John Schulman Joins Mira Murati's Startup". The Information. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  17. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (August 6, 2024). "OpenAI co-founder Schulman leaves for Anthropic, Brockman takes extended leave". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 27, 2025.
  18. ↑ Huang, Cade MetzKalley; Francisco, Mike IsaacReporting from San (January 22, 2026). "The A.I. Start-Up Soap Opera Riveting Silicon Valley". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 20, 2026.
  19. 1 2 "Mira Murati's startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is losing two of its co-founders to OpenAI". TechCrunch. January 15, 2026. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  20. ↑ O'Brien, Terrence (October 12, 2025). "Meta poached Thinking Machines Lab co-founder Andrew Tulloch". The Verge. Retrieved October 16, 2025.
  21. ↑ Criddle, Cristina (February 18, 2025). "Former OpenAI technology chief Mira Murati launches rival start-up". Financial Times. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
  22. ↑ Tong, Anna; Hu, Krystal; Tong, Anna; Hu, Krystal (April 11, 2025). "A16z eyes leading mega round in former OpenAI CTO's startup Thinking Machines, sources say". Reuters. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  23. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (April 8, 2025). "Mira Murati's AI startup gains prominent ex-OpenAI advisers". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  24. ↑ Hagey, Keach (March 10, 2026). "Nvidia Invests in Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  25. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (March 10, 2026). "AI startup Thinking Machines clinches capital and major chip supply deal from Nvidia". Reuters. Retrieved March 20, 2026.
  26. ↑ "Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab leases Mission District office". San Francisco Business Times. August 8, 2025. Retrieved August 23, 2026.
  27. ↑ Knight, Will (October 1, 2025). "Mira Murati's Stealth AI Lab Launches Its First Product". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved November 11, 2025.
  28. ↑ Franzen, Carl (July 15, 2026). "Thinking Machines open sources first multimodal language model, Inkling, focused on low cost and 'resistance to censorship'". VentureBeat. Retrieved July 15, 2026.
  29. ↑ Mills, Madison (July 15, 2026). "Thinking Machines' first model bets big on customization". Axios. Retrieved July 15, 2026.
  30. ↑ Triolo, Paul (July 22, 2026). "The U.S. wants to contain China's AI. Silicon Valley keeps using it". Rest of World. Retrieved August 25, 2026.
  31. ↑ Srinivasaragavan, Suhasini (July 31, 2026). "Thinking Machines Lab unveils new Inkling version at 25pc size". Silicon Republic. Retrieved August 1, 2026.
  32. ↑ Palazzolo, Stephanie; Mascarenhas, Natasha. "Thinking Machines Lab CEO Has Unusual Control in Andreessen-Led Deal". The Information. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  33. ↑ Wiggers, Kyle (April 10, 2025). "Mira Murati's AI startup is reportedly aiming for a massive $2B seed round". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 12, 2025.
  34. ↑ Zeff, Maxwell (July 15, 2025). "Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab is worth $12B in seed round". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
  35. ↑ Saliu, Klara (May 1, 2025). "Albania Enters Global AI Market; Government Invests $10 Million in "Machine Thinking Lab" Led by Albanian-American Mira Murati". RTSH English. Retrieved May 21, 2025.
  36. ↑ Knight, Will (July 15, 2025). "Thinking Machines Lab Raises a Record $2 Billion, Announces Cofounders". Wired. Retrieved July 16, 2025.