Accel in talks to lead $1 billion funding round for Thinking Machines at $40 billion valuation

Thinking Machines, an artificial intelligence startup established last year by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is reportedly in discussions to raise $1 billion in a new funding round. The round is expected to be led by existing investor Accel, according to sources familiar with the matter and reports from The Information. This potential financing would value the company at approximately $40 billion, which is below the $50 billion valuation the company aimed for late last year. The startup's annual revenue run rate exceeds $100 million, indicating a very high revenue multiple relative to its valuation. In July, Thinking Machines launched Inkling, an open-weight AI model that generates revenue through usage-based compute fees on its Tinker platform, which adapts models using proprietary data. Previously, the company raised $2 billion in one of the largest seed funding rounds ever, led by Andreessen Horowitz and joined by investors such as Nvidia, GV, Lightspeed, and Conviction Partners. This earlier round valued the company at $12 billion and was supported largely due to the expertise of Murati and other former OpenAI researchers involved. Since then, Thinking Machines has experienced several notable departures, including co-founders Lilian Weng and Luke Metz, who have returned to OpenAI. Neither Accel nor Thinking Machines have publicly commented on the current funding discussions.