Mira Murati

On January 14-15, 2026, the Mira Murati AI startup, Thinking Machines Lab, faced a major leadership shift. Two of its co-founders, Barret Zoph and Luke Metz, left the company to rejoin OpenAI, the leading AI research firm they once helped build. Another senior researcher also returned to OpenAI as part of the move. Murati, the…

Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has just made headlines again. On July 15, 2025, her AI startup at Thinking Machines Lab closed a massive $2 billion seed round, securing its place as one of the largest early-stage funding rounds ever. The company now holds an impressive $12 billion valuation, and the investment marks a major milestone in…