TechCrunch, citing The Information and a source, says Thinking Machines — founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati — is in talks to raise about $1B at a valuation of at least ~$40B, with existing backer Accel discussing a lead. That would still be below the ~$50B it reportedly sought late last year. A source puts annual revenue run-rate above ~$100M, implying a very high revenue multiple. In July the lab launched open-weight Inkling and monetizes via Tinker's usage-based compute for adapting models on proprietary data. Its prior ~$2B seed (a16z-led with Nvidia, GV, Lightspeed, Conviction) valued it at ~$12B; since then co-founders including Lilian Weng and Luke Metz returned to OpenAI. Accel and Thinking Machines did not immediately comment.
Key Takeaways
- ✓Talks for ~$1B at ≥~$40B; Accel discussing lead
- ✓ARR reportedly >~$100M; still below ~$50B sought late last year
- ✓Product: open-weight Inkling + Tinker fine-tune compute; prior seed ~$2B / ~$12B
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