According to multiple people familiar with the matter, artificial intelligence startup Thinking Machines Lab is expected to complete a new $5 billion funding round as soon as this week, at a pre-money valuation of $40 billion.
The sources also said the round is led by Accel.
Founded by former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, Thinking Machines Lab previously had a valuation of more than $10 billion; last year, before launching any product, the company completed a $2 billion seed round.
If this round is completed, Thinking Machines Lab's valuation will more than triple the level of its last publicly disclosed funding round last year.
This shows that even as the talent war in the artificial intelligence industry intensifies, investors are still willing to commit huge sums to AI labs.
Last year, the company sought a new funding round at a $50 billion valuation, but those talks ultimately failed to materialize.
Murati previously served as OpenAI's chief technology officer, while other core members of Thinking Machines Lab also took part in training early versions of ChatGPT.
The company's first tool, "Tinker," is a system designed to help users more easily fine-tune large language models.
On Thursday, Thinking Machines Lab released a new version of Tinker and said the system had achieved significant improvements in AI-assisted programming.
The startup had attracted top talent, including competitive programming ace Neal Wu.
However, as the talent war in the AI field intensifies, the company has lost multiple founding members — including Barret Zoph, Luke Metz and Andrew Tulloch — who left for rival companies.
In May this year, reports said about one-third of Thinking Machines Lab's founding team members had departed.
The reasons for this phenomenon are varied, and one important factor is the hefty compensation packages offered by competitors such as Meta and OpenAI.
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