Nvidia invests in startup of ex-OpenAI head who replaced Altman after his resignation
Nvidia will provide Thinking Machines Lab with next-generation processors Vera Rubin
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (left) and Thinking Machines Lab CEO Mira Murati (right) / Photo: Nvidia
Chipmaker Nvidia on Tuesday announced a "significant investment" in artificial intelligence startup Thinking Machines Lab. It was founded by former CTO of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, Mira Murati. She led OpenAI for that brief period when Sam Altman was first fired by the board and then returned to head the company five days later.
Details
The exact size of Nvidia's investment in Thinking Machines Lab was not disclosed. The companies have also agreed to a partnership under which Nvidia will supply Thinking Machines Lab with more than 1 gigawatt of computing power based on next-generation Vera Rubin chips.
In a joint statement, Nvidia and Thinking Machines said the processors will begin rolling out early next year. The agreement calls for joint development of AI model training and exploitation systems for Nvidia's architectures, as well as increased access to advanced AI models and open source models for enterprise customers, research institutions and academia.
"This partnership will accelerate our ability to create artificial intelligence that people can control and customize while it, in turn, will empower humans," said Thinking Machines Lab CEO Mira Murati.
Context
Ma founded Thinking Machines in 2025 after stepping down as CTO of OpenAI in 2024. In 2023, she was acting CEO of OpenAI when the board of directors removed Sam Altman. Altman was later reinstated and the composition of the board changed significantly, Yahoo Finance writes.
Recently, Nvidia has been actively entering into new deals. For example, on March 2, the company announced agreements with Coherent and Lumentum to develop optical technologies. In February, Nvidia also announced a massive multi-year partnership with Meta. In addition, OpenAI disclosed that Nvidia will invest $30 billion in the company in another round.
However, the Thinking Machines deal is likely to heighten concerns about "circular investment" in the AI industry, according to Yahoo Finance. This is a practice in which companies such as Nvidia, AMD and other chip makers invest capital in AI startups, which then use the money to buy processors from the same manufacturers. Critics believe that such a model could create artificial demand for AI chips and infrastructure.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
