The chosen one from Silicon Valley, creating a $350 billion unicorn through facial recognition technology

[New Intelligence Yuan Introduction] The startup founded by the "chosen one" of Silicon Valley has set another record, with a staggering valuation of $50 billion (equivalent to 350 billion RMB)! This isn't just entrepreneurship; it's like creating something out of nothing in the Silicon Valley style, relying solely on the founder's reputation!

The people in Silicon Valley are really bold!

A company with almost zero models and zero products has managed to achieve a valuation of $50 billion just based on the founder's background!

Thinking Machines Lab is seeking another round of financing, aiming to raise between $4 billion and $5 billion this time.

This news was exclusively leaked by foreign media. It hasn't been confirmed by major media outlets yet, but it's highly likely to be true.

Thinking Machines Lab has previously raised $2 billion in funds, and its most recent valuation was $10 billion.

You can't say that Thinking Machines Lab has zero products. After all, in October, Thinking Machines launched Tinker.

This is an application programming interface that allows developers to fine - tune or adjust open - source models.

Some people on the internet have shared screenshots of Tinker's operation interface, but the authenticity remains to be verified.

Compared to Cursor's valuation of $29 billion, Thinking Machines Lab has a valuation of $50 billion with seemingly nothing to show for it!

Just imagine how big the bubble is!

What does $50 billion mean? It's equivalent to 350 billion RMB!

It would rank among the top 40 in the A - share market.

All I can say is, I don't understand (in the tone of Lao Jiang)!

It can only be said that the founder, Mira Murati, has added a huge boost to this company.

This lady is truly a chosen one.

With her early experience as the CTO at OpenAI, it seems like this title alone is worth $10 billion. (Just kidding)

The five people in the following picture are the founding members of OpenAI. I think Ilya has the greatest talent, and now he has gone independent.

The female CTO probably didn't get along well with Altman, so she also left to start her own business.

The remaining three people are still at OpenAI: Altman is like a mascot, Greg (second from the left) continues to serve as the president, and Jakub Pachocki (first from the left) is the current chief scientist at OpenAI.

Mira Murati was born on December 16, 1988. At the age of 16, she won a scholarship to attend Pearson United World College in Canada.

She obtained a double degree in college, making her a comprehensive talent in management and engineering.

In 2013, she joined Tesla as a product manager/senior product manager, especially participating in the product development of models like the Model X.

It's highly likely that Elon Musk introduced her to Altman.

In 2018, Murati joined OpenAI as the VP of Applied AI & Partnerships (a position more focused on application rather than pure technology).

In 2018, OpenAI was still in a relatively low - key stage.

At that time, the entire AI technology circle was mainly focused on reinforcement learning and deep learning.

I remember that in that year, OpenAI's most well - known achievement was OpenAI Five, a Dota 2 game AI system.

By the end of 2018, OpenAI had already started the research on GPT - 2.

Although GPT - 2 was officially released in 2019, it made significant progress during the pre - research and experimental stages in 2018.

GPT - 2 is a large language model based on Transformer, capable of generating high - quality and coherent text.

At that time, it attracted wide attention because the text it generated could reach the level of human writing.

The signs of its potential were starting to show.

Everyone knows what happened next.

At the end of 2022, ChatGPT emerged suddenly, sweeping across the globe, subverting people's perceptions, and leaving everyone stunned...

Looking back, I think all kinds of praise can be freely given to ChatGPT. After all, it's a product that has rewritten the history of human technology and changed the trajectory of human technological development.

In May 2022, according to public information, Murati was promoted to CTO!

In a company full of "geniuses", Murati was able to stand out and become the CTO. It has to be said that she has real skills.

This is probably the fundamental reason why investors are optimistic about her new startup.

Then, the story reached its most dramatic part.

There was a coup at OpenAI!

In November 2023, Altman was suddenly ousted by Ilya!

Murati briefly served as the "interim CEO" of OpenAI during that period. (This also shows that based on the relationships among the directors and founding members at that time, Murati had good popularity and ability. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been given the power to lead, especially when OpenAI was at its peak.)

However, since this coup, whose truth remains unclear, there have been fundamental changes within OpenAI.

As the saying goes, "The world's trends tend to divide after a long - term unity and unite after a long - term division."

It's just that, like the rapid development of AI, the disintegration of the OpenAI team has also been a bit fast.

In September 2024, Murati announced that she would leave OpenAI, hoping to "make time and space for her own exploration."

After a year of silence, in early 2025, she founded Thinking Machines Lab and serves as the founder/CEO.

She positions the new company to "make AI systems more widely understood, customizable, and promote the next - generation capabilities."

She has also poached some senior researchers/engineers from OpenAI and other places.

Of course, saying that Murati is just lucky and a chosen one by chance would be to deny her own abilities.

Looking back, why has she reached this position?

First, her engineering background, product management experience, and experience in high - tech companies: Tesla (integration of hardware and software), Leap Motion (interaction/AR), and then the AI pioneer OpenAI.

Second, when the AI boom was rising, she happened to be in a key position. She took on the technical leadership role when OpenAI shifted from a research - oriented to a product - oriented company (with products like ChatGPT and DALL·E).

Third, she has a comprehensive perspective of "looking at technology from a product perspective" and "looking at products from a technology implementation perspective", which is rare among those with purely research - based or product - based backgrounds.

Actually, we can see from the strategic positioning of the new company that she is very practical, and there is technical support at the core.

Thinking Machines Lab has abandoned OpenAI's previous vision of a "large and general" model and instead focuses on "enterprise - customized models" and "industry implementation".

Even the direction of its first product, Tinker, is to enable individual developers to have the ability to "modify" models.

However!

Finally, I have to say that a company with almost no outstanding products with a certain user base has a valuation of $50 billion.

It can only be said that the AI bubble is so big that no one can predict how much bigger it can get.

The news leaked by foreign media this time, combined with the recent news of continuous selling of NVIDIA stocks, is somewhat ironic.

Following SoftBank's complete sell - off and Bridgewater's significant reduction of NVIDIA stocks, another important figure has joined in.

The billionaire and one of the most influential investors in Silicon Valley, Peter Thiel, has also sold all his shares and left the market.

The successive reductions by multiple investment giants undoubtedly send a clear signal of caution and bearishness to this crazy and enthusiastic AI market.

But at the same time, this company, which still has nothing to show for it, is still seeking $5 billion in financing!

It has to be said that the Americans are really bold. The bubble is just too big. Who will ultimately bear the cost?

On one hand, NVIDIA, which has just released amazing financial reports, is being panic - sold in the secondary market.

On the other hand, a newly established startup is being wildly valued in the primary market.

Capital seems to be playing a split game: they are starting to doubt how long the "shovel sellers" can keep making money, but they are turning around and betting even more crazily on the "treasure hunters" who haven't found the gold mine yet.

$5 billion may not be an investment in the future of Thinking Machines, but rather a lottery ticket to the "next OpenAI".

For now, Mira Murati is undoubtedly the most expensive player in this hot - potato game.

As to whether this is the "golden age" of artificial intelligence or the last "tulip mania" in Silicon Valley, perhaps we can only see the truth when Tinker starts charging for its services.

After all, the sound of a bursting bubble is often louder than the sound of it being inflated.

Let's wait and see.

This article is from the WeChat official account "New Intelligence Yuan". The author is New Intelligence Yuan. It is published by 36Kr with permission.