Justification of new and ambitious AI valuation: Startup Thinking Machines pulls in $2B at a stunning $10B valuation in one of the largest seed rounds ever.

Startups have always been a gamble, but when one raises as much capital at such an early stage as Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines, it truly commands our attention. The AI startup that hinges on secrecy as its policy announced an astounding $2 billion raise at a $10 billion valuation. Such figures certainly raise eyebrows, particularly as the company is only four months into its business journey.

The former chief technology officer of OpenAI, Mira Murati, is the mastermind behind the venture. The professional shift came soon after her brief stint as CEO for OpenAI, following Sam Altman’s removal from the company. Murati’s move to put her experience and skills towards creating her venture wasn’t a solo decision. The trend was already set by her former colleague, Ilya Sutskever, the co-founder, and ex-chief scientist at OpenAI, who had earlier set up his AI safety startup, Safe Superintelligence.

Presently, there is little known about what Thinking Machines does, apart from being a research and product company. While the scale of the seed round could just be another sign of VCs increasingly focusing on AI investing at this nascent stage, it’s also sparking curiosities about what’s brewing behind the scenes. After all, making this large a bet for a startup during its infancy stage is not just a business move; it’s a solid endorsement in their belief of the company’s potential to transform the future of AI.