Thinking Machines Lab seeks $40B valuation as Nvidia extends its capital allocator role into model-space. Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is in talks to raise between $5 billion and $6 billion at a pre-money valuation of at least $40 billion. Nvidia is separately in discussions to invest approximately $2.5 billion, while existing backer Accel is reportedly in talks to lead the round. The valuation represents a significant correction from the company's previous fundraise ambitions. Thinking Machines had sought a $50 billion to $60 billion valuation in a round that collapsed earlier this year, with three co-founders returning to OpenAI. The current talks price the lab at 3.3 times its July 2025 seed round, which raised $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Nvidia, AMD, Cisco, ServiceNow, Accel, and Jane Street. The Nvidia dimension is what makes this more than a fundraise story. The chipmaker's reported $2.5 billion investment in Thinking Machines completes a five-week pattern of model-space capital deployment that has no historical precedent from a hardware company. Nvidia's reported $12.9 billion acquisition of Hugging Face (Aug 26-27) targeted model distribution. Its investment in SSI (Jul 28) backed safety-aligned frontier research. Its $30 billion-plus investment in Perplexity (Aug 24) bet on AI-native search. And now the Thinking Machines talks target open-weights frontier infrastructure. Each investment occupies a different layer of the emerging AI stack. Together they suggest Nvidia is no longer content to sell compute to frontier labs. It is becoming the capital allocator that determines which of them survive and on what terms. The partnership infrastructure reinforces the pattern. In March 2026, Thinking Machines and Nvidia announced a multiyear arrangement under which the lab will deploy at least one gigawatt of Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin systems, with first rollout targeted for early 2027. Capital investment and hardware supply are no longer separate conversations. For Thinking Machines, the round arrives at a critical juncture. The lab shipped Inkling-Small on July 15 - a 276 billion-parameter open-weights model with 12 billion active parameters that scored 80.2 percent on SWE-Bench Verified and 64.7 percent on Terminal Bench 2.1. The Tinker fine-tuning-as-a-service platform launched alongside it, positioning the lab to generate recurring revenue from enterprise customization rather than relying on inference fees alone. The open-weights positioning carries strategic weight in the current market. Thinking Machines is the only US-based lab shipping frontier-class open-weights models that compete directly with Chinese releases from DeepSeek, Moonshot, Qwen, and GLM on both capability and price. For investors weighing geopolitical risk and supply-chain provenance, that distinction commands a premium - though it has not yet translated to the valuations the company once sought. The repricing from $50-60 billion to "at least" $40 billion tells its own story. The failed round earlier this year was not just a financing miss. The departure of three co-founders back to OpenAI signaled organizational turbulence that makes this second attempt a credibility test as much as a capital raise. Whether the lower valuation reflects broader market cooling, company-specific concerns, or both, the number itself becomes a signal for how the market is pricing frontier-lab risk in late 2026. The deal has not closed. All reports describe ongoing discussions, and the final structure - whether Nvidia's $2.5 billion is part of the $5-6 billion total or sits alongside it - remains unclear. Accel and Thinking Machines have not commented. What to watch: whether the round closes at or above the reported $40 billion floor, and how Nvidia's dual role as hardware supplier and equity investor shapes Thinking Machines' deployment timeline for the Vera Rubin systems commitment.

Thinking Machines Lab seeks $40B valuation in new funding talks. 2026-09-03 11:43:49 Thinking Machines Lab, the AI company founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is in discussions to raise capital at a valuation of roughly $40 billion. The potential round would represent a more than threefold increase from the $12 billion post-money valuation the company secured during its $2 billion seed round in July 2025. Previous fundraising talks exploring valuations as high as $50 billion collapsed by early 2026, pushing the company back to its post-seed valuation. Murati launched Thinking Machines Lab in February 2025 after departing OpenAI, assembling a team of former colleagues to build a public benefit corporation focused on scalable AI models and developer tools. Thinking Machines Lab valuation shifts from $12B to $40B. Thinking Machines Lab closed a $2 billion seed round in July 2025 at a $12 billion post-money valuation. Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, and AMD participated in the financing, which ranked among the largest seed rounds on record. The Albanian government made a small investment in the round. By late 2025, the company explored a follow-on raise at valuations as high as $50 billion. Those discussions collapsed by early 2026. Thinking Machines Lab launches Tinker API and Inkling model. The company launched Tinker in October 2025, an API designed for fine-tuning open-weight models. On July 15, 2026, Thinking Machines Lab released Inkling, a multimodal foundation model with 975 billion parameters. Nvidia provides one gigawatt compute capacity to Thinking Machines Lab. Thinking Machines Lab secured a multi-year partnership with Nvidia in March 2026. The deal provides access to at least one gigawatt of cutting-edge compute capacity and includes an undisclosed additional investment. A single large data center typically consumes between 50 and 100 megawatts. The company also established a separate infrastructure agreement with Google Cloud. Thinking Machines Lab employs 100-200 people as public benefit corporation. The company employs between 100 and 200 people as of mid-2026. Thinking Machines Lab operates as a public benefit corporation, a structure that balances profit with broader societal considerations. If the $40 billion funding round closes, the company would rank among the most valuable private AI companies globally. Faq. What valuation is Thinking Machines Lab seeking in its current funding discussions? Thinking Machines Lab is in discussions to raise capital at a valuation of roughly $40 billion. This represents a more than threefold increase from the $12 billion post-money valuation the company achieved in its July 2025 seed round. What products has Thinking Machines Lab released? The company launched Tinker in October 2025, an API for fine-tuning open-weight models. On July 15, 2026, Thinking Machines Lab released Inkling, a multimodal foundation model with 975 billion parameters. What infrastructure partnerships has Thinking Machines Lab established? In March 2026, Thinking Machines Lab secured a multi-year partnership with Nvidia providing at least one gigawatt of compute capacity and an undisclosed investment. The company also established a separate infrastructure deal with Google Cloud. Disclaimer: The information on this page may come from third-party sources and is for reference only. It does not represent the views or opinions of Gate and does not constitute any financial, investment, or legal advice. Virtual asset trading involves high risk. Please do not rely solely on the information on this page when making decisions. For details, see the Disclaimer.

Thinking Machines Lab, the AI developer led by ex-OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, is in talks to raise at least $1 billion at a valuation of at least $40 billion before the investment, according to a person with knowledge of the fundraise. Existing investor Accel is in talks to lead ...