Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s AI startup Thinking Machines lands massive Nvidia deal: What the companies have to say

Thinking Machines, the high-profile AI startup founded by former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, has struck a multi-year partnership with Nvidia. The deal, announced by Murati on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), secures both financial investment and a guaranteed supply of the world's most advanced computer chips.The agreement ensures that Thinking Machines will be among the first to receive Nvidia’s next-generation “Vera Rubin” systems starting early next year."Grateful to Jensen and @nvidia team for their support. Together, we’re working to deploy at least 1GW of Vera Rubin systems, bringing adaptable collaborative AI to everyone," Murati said in a post on X. Thinking Machines has committed to procuring at least one gigawatt of computing power. To put that in perspective, one gigawatt is enough to power roughly 750,000 homes. As per news agency Reuters, industry experts estimate that a setup of this size can cost approximately $50 billion. This injection of hardware will also gove Murati’s startup the required “firepower” to compete with companies like Google, Anthropic and OpenAI.Notably, Nvidia was already an investor in Thinking Machines’ $2 billion seed round, which valued the company at $12 billion last year. Thinking Machines Lab and NVIDIA announced today a multi-year strategic partnership to deploy at least one gigawatt of next-generation NVIDIA Vera Rubin systems to support Thinking Machines’ frontier model training and platforms delivering customizable AI at scale. Deployment on NVIDIA’s Vera Rubin platform is targeted for early next year.The partnership also includes an effort to design training and serving systems for NVIDIA architectures and broaden access to frontier AI and open models for enterprises, research institutions, and the scientific community.NVIDIA has also made a significant investment in Thinking Machines Lab to support the company’s long-term growth.“AI is the most powerful knowledge discovery instrument in human history,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Thinking Machines has brought together a world-class team to advance the frontier of AI. We are thrilled to partner with Thinking Machines to realize their exciting vision for the future of AI.”“NVIDIA’s technology is the foundation on which the entire field is built,” said Mira Murati, cofounder and CEO of Thinking Machines. “This partnership accelerates our capacity to build AI that people can shape and make their own, as it shapes human potential in turn.”Building powerful AI systems that are understandable, customizable, and collaborative demands advances in research, design, and infrastructure at scale. This partnership provides that foundation, with the shared aim of ensuring that the most transformative technology of our time expands human capability.