She may not have the same name recognition as other tech execs like Tim Cook, Bill Gates, or Mark Zuckerberg—not yet, anyway—but Mira Murati is one of the most-watched entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. The former chief technology officer from OpenAI, who left to launch her own AI startup last year, just celebrated a major milestone: Her company, Thinking Machines Lab, just launched its first product this week, called Tinker. Rather than be another generative-AI chatbot like ChatGPT, Tinker is designed to help researchers and developers fine-tune AI models without the need to manage massive computing infrastructure. The launch represents the first commercial product from Thinking Machines, which raised a record-breaking $2 billion in seed funding at a $12 billion valuation.
Murati, the 36-year-old Albanian-American engineer-turned-executive, has emerged as a defining figure in the AI boom. Her journey from a mechanical engineering student to the chief technology officer who helped create ChatGPT exemplifies the rapid transformation of both AI technology and the careers of those building it. More recently, her ability to resist Mark Zuckerberg’s aggressive recruitment efforts—including reported billion-dollar offers to acquire her company and poach her talent—has solidified her reputation as a leader willing to chart her own course in an industry dominated by tech giants.
From Albania to the world stage
Born on December 16, 1988, in Vlorë, Albania, during the final years of the country’s totalitarian regime, Murati’s early life was shaped by political upheaval and economic uncertainty. Her parents, both high school teachers who taught literature, encouraged her academic pursuits, but Murati told Microsoft’s CTO Kevin Scott in 2023 that she had an “organic interest towards math and science,” where she excelled in Olympiads and competitions throughout her schooling.
At 16, Murati won a scholarship from United World Colleges—a program that brings together students from over 80 countries to promote intercultural understanding and social responsibility—to study at Pearson College on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. But a fter graduating from Pearson in 2005, Murati pursued an unusual academic path that would prove prescient for her later career. She enrolled in a dual-degree program, completing a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Colby College in 2011 and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Dartmouth College’s Thayer School of Engineering in 2012. This combination of liberal arts and engineering disciplines provided her with both analytical thinking skills and technical expertise, which would prove handy in her later roles in Silicon Valley.
Murati’s professional journey began with a summer analyst internship at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo in 2011, followed by a brief stint as an Advanced Concepts Engineer at Zodiac Aerospace from 2012 to 2013. She joined Tesla that same year a s a senior product manager for the Model X program, contributing to the development of Tesla’s SUV project. In 2016, she joined Leap Motion, an augmented-reality startup, as vice president of product and engineering. During her two-year tenure, she focused on advancing human-computer interaction technology, helping shape the company’s product offerings and market strategy. This role positioned her perfectly for the next phase of her career in AI development.
The OpenAI years
Murati joined OpenAI in June 2018, as vice president of applied AI and partnerships, during a pivotal period for the organization. She quickly rose through the ranks, becoming senior vice president of research, product and partnerships in 2020, before being promoted to chief technology officer in 2022.
As CTO, Murati oversaw the development of some of the most transformative AI technologies of the modern era. She led teams working on ChatGPT, DALL-E, Codex, and Sora—products that fundamentally changed how the public interacts with artificial intelligence. Her leadership was instrumental in scaling OpenAI from a research organization to one of the most important AI companies in the world.
In November 2023, Murati briefly found herself at the center of Silicon Valley drama when she was named interim CEO following Sam Altman’s sudden removal by OpenAI’s board. Though her tenure lasted only three days before being replaced by Emmett Shear, who then stepped aside when Altman was reinstated, the episode highlighted her standing within the organization and the industry—and, given the media firestorm, it ended up being the first time many people heard the name “Mira Murati.”
Recognition and controversy
Murati’s influence has been recognized across the technology industry. She was ranked 57th on Fortune’s list of “The 100 Most Powerful Women in Business of 2023” and featured in Time’s 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2024. In June 2024, Dartmouth College awarded her an honorary Doctor of Science degree, recognizing her contributions to artificial intelligence, technology, and engineering.
However, Murati’s tenure at OpenAI was not without controversy. At a speaking engagement at Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering, Murati made comments about AI’s impact on creative jobs that sparked significant backlash. “Some creative jobs maybe will go away, but maybe they shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” she said. Critics, including from Dartmouth’s own student body, accused her of being tone-deaf to the concerns of artists and writers whose livelihoods are threatened by AI automation.
Despite the controversy, Murati has consistently advocated for responsible AI development and government regulation. In a 2023 interview with Time Magazine, she said: “It’s important for OpenAI and companies like ours to bring this into the public consciousness in a way that’s controlled and responsible. But we’re a small group of people and we need a ton more input in this system and a lot more input that goes beyond the technologies—definitely regulators and governments and everyone else.”
Building Thinking Machines Lab
In September 2024, Murati announced her departure from OpenAI to pursue “my own exploration,” publishing the note she shared with her fellow employees on X.
“There’s never an ideal time to step away from a place one cherishes, yet this moment feels right. Our recent releases of speech-to-speech and OpenAl o1 mark the beginning of a new era in interaction and intelligence — achievements made possible by your ingenuity and craftsmanship,” she said. “I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to build and work alongside this remarkable team.”
Months later, in February of this year, Murati officially launched Thinking Machines Lab, a public benefit corporation focused on developing AI systems that are more accessible, customizable, and human-aligned. The startup assembled an impressive roster of talent, recruiting approximately 30 researchers and engineers from leading AI firms including former colleagues from OpenAI, as well as experts from Google, Meta, Mistral, and Character AI. The team’s collective expertise and Murati’s track record enabled the company to raise $2 billion in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Nvidia, AMD, Accel, ServiceNow, Cisco, and Jane Street, giving her startup a $12 billion valuation.
Resisting Silicon Valley giants
The true test of Murati’s leadership came when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched what The Wall Street Journal called a “full-scale raid” on her startup. Zuckerberg reportedly approached more than a dozen employees at the 50-person company, offering packages ranging from $200 million to $1.5 billion over multiple years. One researcher reportedly received an offer worth over $1 billion, while others were promised earnings between $50 million and $100 million in their first year alone.
The aggressive recruitment campaign targeted key figures including Andrew Tulloch, Murati’s co-founder and a machine-learning expert who previously worked at Meta for over a decade. Despite the astronomical offers, not a single employee accepted Meta’s proposals—a remarkable display of loyalty in an industry where talent frequently moves for financial incentives.
This resistance speaks to both Murati’s leadership and the team’s belief in Thinking Machines Lab’s mission. As she said when announcing the company’s funding: “We believe AI should serve as an extension of individual agency and, in the spirit of freedom, be distributed as widely and equitably as possible.”
Murati’s present and AI’s future
With Tinker’s launch, Thinking Machines Lab is betting that the next frontier in AI lies not in building ever-larger models, but in democratizing access to advanced capabilities through fine-tuning tools. The platform currently allows users to customize Meta’s Llama and Alibaba’s Qwen models using just a few lines of code, handling the complexity of distributed training that typically requires specialized expertise and significant computing resources.
“We believe [Tinker] will help empower researchers and developers to experiment with models and will make frontier capabilities much more accessible to all people,” Murati told Wired. The company plans to release additional scientific findings to help the broader research community understand frontier AI systems.
As the AI industry continues to evolve at breakneck speed, Murati’s approach offers a compelling alternative to the winner-take-all dynamics that have come to define Silicon Valley. Whether Thinking Machines Lab can maintain this independence while scaling its technology and influence remains to be seen, but Murati’s track record suggests she’s building something designed to last.
Last June, Murati discussed a wide range of topics at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women dinner in San Francisco, including the Apple partnership, safety and privacy concerns, how she found her love for AI, and more. You can watch the full conversation below.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.