A profile piece follows Thinking Machines Lab founder Mira Murati at a black-tie AI-industry gala in San Francisco, where she struggled to be heard over a chattering crowd despite her prominent status as a former OpenAI CTO who now runs a $12 billion startup. The writer uses the scene to explore why, unlike male tech leaders such as Elon Musk, Jensen Huang or Sam Altman, no single woman comes quickly to mind when people are asked who holds the most power in Silicon Valley.
wired.com
· 2026-09-21
Thinking Machines, the AI lab started by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is reportedly negotiating a $1 billion funding round that would value it at $40 billion or more, with existing investor Accel potentially leading the deal. That figure would mark a step down from the $50 billion valuation the startup had sought late last year, though it still dwarfs the company's reported annual revenue run rate of over $100 million.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-03
Barret Zoph, who co-founded Thinking Machines with Mira Murati after leaving OpenAI in 2024, returned to OpenAI in January but departed again after just five months leading enterprise AI sales. He has now joined Google as vice president of research, where he previously worked, to apply his reinforcement learning and post-training expertise to Gemini.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-08-27
Barret Zoph, a co-founder of Thinking Machines Lab, has left the startup to join Google as a vice president of research. Zoph had previously spent time at OpenAI before helping start Thinking Machines Lab.
wsj.com
· 2026-08-27
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