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57 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
57 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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type: entity
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entity_type: lab
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name: "Thinking Machines Lab"
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domain: ai-alignment
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handles: ["@thinkingmachlab"]
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website: https://thinkingmachines.ai
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status: emerging
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founded: 2025-01-01
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founders: ["Mira Murati", "John Schulman", "Barrett Zoph", "Lilian Weng", "Andrew Tulloch", "Luke Metz"]
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category: "Frontier AI research laboratory"
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stage: seed
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funding: "$2B seed (Jul 2025)"
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key_metrics:
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valuation: "$12B (seed, Jul 2025)"
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valuation_target: "$50B (reportedly seeking)"
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revenue: "Pre-revenue (Tinker fine-tuning API launched)"
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employees: null
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competitors: ["OpenAI", "Anthropic", "SSI"]
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tracked_by: theseus
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created: 2026-03-16
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last_updated: 2026-03-16
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supports:
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- "OpenAI"
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reweave_edges:
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- "OpenAI|supports|2026-03-28"
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---
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# Thinking Machines Lab
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## Overview
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The highest-profile AI lab spinout in history, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati with a founding team of senior OpenAI researchers including John Schulman (RL/alignment research lead) and Barrett Zoph. Murati was named 2026 CNBC Changemaker. Secured the largest seed round ever ($2B at $12B) and a significant Nvidia investment with commitment to 1 GW of Vera Rubin systems.
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## Current State
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- Pre-revenue, own models expected 2026
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- Released Tinker fine-tuning API as first product
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- Nvidia made "significant investment" (Mar 2026) + 1 GW Vera Rubin commitment
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- Reportedly seeking $5B at $50B valuation
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## Timeline
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- **2024-09** — Mira Murati departed OpenAI as CTO
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- **2025-01** — Thinking Machines Lab founded
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- **2025-07** — Raised $2B seed at $12B valuation — largest seed round ever
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- **2026-03** — Nvidia investment + 1 GW Vera Rubin systems commitment
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## Competitive Position
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The founding team is TML's primary asset: Murati's product vision (scaled ChatGPT at OpenAI), Schulman's RL and alignment research (PPO, RLHF), Zoph's scaling research. The team composition suggests a lab that takes alignment seriously by design — Schulman's research focus is alignment methodology, not pure capability.
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The Nvidia partnership (compute commitment) provides infrastructure parity with larger labs. The key question: can they ship competitive models before their $2B runs out, or will they need the $50B raise?
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## Relationship to KB
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- [[the first mover to superintelligence likely gains decisive strategic advantage because the gap between leader and followers accelerates during takeoff]] — TML is attempting to enter the race late with superior team composition
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- [[no research group is building alignment through collective intelligence infrastructure despite the field converging on problems that require it]] — TML's Schulman may pursue alignment differently than existing labs
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Topics:
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- [[_map]]
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