After leaving the ChatGPT maker last year, the ex-OpenAI CTO is building a new startup.
She has recruited talent from OpenAI, as well as other AI startups.
Murati is among a handful of former OpenAI execs to leave and launch their own companies.
Since leaving OpenAI in the fall of 2024, former exec Mira Murati has wasted no time starting her next venture.
Less than a month after leaving OpenAI, Murati was already engaging in early talks to raise money for her new AI company, Reuters reported, with venture capitalists clamoring to meet with her.
She’s also been quietly hiring researchers and engineers for her stealth startup.
As of January, Murati had recruited about 10 people for her company from competitors, including Character AI, Google DeepMind, and her former employer, Wired reported. Murati told some people she plans to call the startup Thinking Machine Labs, The Information reported.
Murati spent six and a half years at OpenAI, where she served as CTO, working on the development of ChatGPT and other AI research initiatives. She was briefly appointed interim CEO in November 2023 after OpenAI’s board abruptly fired Sam Altman, a move that sparked turmoil within the company. After Altman’s reinstatement as CEO, Murati resumed her role as CTO.
Murati is one of a handful of former OpenAI executives who have gone on to launch their own companies. Former OpenAI chief scientist and cofounder Ilya Sutskever left the company in May 2024 and started Safe Superintelligence Inc. soon after leaving. Dario and Daniela Amodei, who also both worked at OpenAI, founded Anthropic in 2021.
The flurry of departures to start and join new companies, coupled with plans to convert the company to a for-profit company, adds to the uncertainty surrounding the ChatGPT maker.
Here are the OpenAI employees who are known to have left the company so far to join Murati’s startup.
John Schulman
Schulman left OpenAI in August and joined rival Anthropic, where he hoped to do more “hands-on technical work” and “focus on AI alignment,” he wrote on X. An OpenAI cofounder, Schulman led the creation of ChatGPT and co-led the company’s post-training team, which makes models for the chatbot and OpenAI’s API, according to his website.
About six months after starting at Anthropic, though, Schulman departed the company and joined Murati’s venture. At Anthropic, Schulman worked on aligning LLMs, according to his website.
Jonathan Lachman
Lachman, formerly the head of special projects at OpenAI, left the company for Murati’s startup, Wired reported in January. He worked at OpenAI for a little over a year and a half and left in November 2024, according to his LinkedIn. Lachman did not respond to a request for comment.
