Accel reportedly in talks to lead $1B round for Thinking Machines at $40B valuation
techcrunch ·
The AI lab Thinking Machines, founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is reportedly in talks to raise $1 billion at a valuation of at least $40 billion, with existing investor Accel potentially leading the round. The Information reported the news, and TechCrunch confirmed via a source. This new valuation would be lower than the $50 billion the startup reportedly sought late last year. The company's annual revenue run rate exceeds $100 million, making the $40 billion valuation a very high revenue multiple. Thinking Machines recently introduced Inkling, an open-weight model that charges usage-based compute fees for adapting models on proprietary data via its Tinker platform. The startup previously raised a $2 billion seed round at a $12 billion valuation, one of the largest seed financings ever, led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Nvidia, GV, Lightspeed, and Conviction Partners. Since then, several co-founders, including Lilian Weng and Luke Metz, have departed and returned to OpenAI. Neither Accel nor Thinking Machines immediately responded to requests for comment.
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