Accel eyes lead role in $1 billion funding round for Thinking Machines at $40 billion valuation

Thinking Machines, the artificial-intelligence laboratory launched early last year by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is negotiating a $1 billion financing round that would set its valuation at at least $40 billion. Sources indicate that Accel is in discussions to head the investment. The startup’s annual revenue run-rate now tops $100 million, suggesting an unusually high valuation multiple.

In July, the firm introduced Inkling, an open-weight model that charges usage-based compute fees on its Tinker platform. The company’s prior $2 billion seed financing, one of the largest ever, valued it at $12 billion and was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Nvidia, GV, Lightspeed and Conviction Partners. The earlier round was largely justified by Murati’s reputation and the involvement of former OpenAI researchers.

Since then, several co-founders, including Lilian Weng and Luke Metz, have left to rejoin OpenAI. Accel and Thinking Machines have not responded to comment requests.