Sequoia partner on Murati’s AI startup: “We’re talking to her”

Sequoia Capital partner Alfred Lin said the firm has been in touch with former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati about her new startup’s funding round — a closely held deal that’s captivated the attention of much of Silicon Valley.

“We’re talking to her,” Lin said on Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Murati, who left OpenAI in September, unveiled her new company, Thinking Machines Lab, earlier this year. Murati has recruited other former OpenAI leaders to build out the new venture, which will focus on building artificial intelligence models and products that support more “human-AI collaboration.”

Sequoia has already backed another OpenAI alum, Ilya Sutskever, when he raised $1 billion for his startup Safe Superintelligence last year. Bloomberg reported in February that Sutskever is raising additional capital that would value the company at more than $30 billion.


The significant sums Sutskever has raised, and the anticipation surrounding Murati’s company, underscore the star power of a few AI leaders. It also highlights investors’ confidence that these founders can parlay their success at OpenAI to their next ventures — even if they have yet to show revenue or a product.

Lin emphasized that he’s thinking about the long term. “The entry price today is important but not as relevant when you think of the order of magnitude in the future,” he said. “The order of magnitude we think about today will surprise us in the long run.”