Thinking Machines Seeks $40B Valuation in Talks with Nvidia

M&A · Partnership Impact 4
โดย Yahoo Finance·US·Read original
Summary · why it matters

Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, is in talks to raise between $5 billion and $6 billion at a pre-money valuation of at least $40 billion, with Nvidia in discussions to invest approximately $2.5 billion and existing backer Accel reportedly leading the round. This marks a significant correction from the company's earlier ambition of a $50 billion to $60 billion valuation in a round that collapsed this year. The current talks price the lab at 3.3 times its July 2025 seed round, which raised $2 billion at a $12 billion valuation. Nvidia's reported investment completes a five-week pattern of model-space capital deployment, including its $12.9 billion acquisition of Hugging Face, an investment in SSI, and a $30 billion-plus investment in Perplexity, positioning Nvidia as a capital allocator in the AI stack. Thinking Machines, which shipped the open-weights model Inkling-Small on July 15, is the only US-based lab shipping frontier-class open-weights models that compete directly with Chinese releases from DeepSeek, Moonshot, Qwen, and GLM on both capability and price. The deal has not closed, and the final structure remains unclear.

Impact on stocks 5

Artificial Intelligence▲ · 4 stocks
NVIDIA Corporation
NVDA
▲ PositiveCapitalrelevance

Nvidia is in talks to invest ~$2.5B in Thinking Machines, part of a five-week pattern of AI capital deployment including the Hugging Face acquisition and Perplexity investment.

Real Estate▲ · 1 stocks

Theme Impact 2

Off-coverage companies 5

Hugging FacePrivate▲ Positive
Capitalrelevance

Article cites Nvidia's $12.9B acquisition of Hugging Face as part of its recent AI capital deployment.

Perplexity AI, Inc.Private▲ Positive
Capitalrelevance

Article notes Nvidia's $30B-plus investment in Perplexity as part of its recent AI capital deployment.

AccelPrivate± Mixed
relevance

DeepSeekPrivate± Mixed
relevance

Solutions Staffing Inc.Private± Mixed
relevance

Related news

2impact 4

Anthropic Weighs New AI Model Launch Ahead of IPO, Reuters Reports

Anthropic is planning to release a new AI model ahead of its much-anticipated IPO as it seeks to rival OpenAI's momentum in enterprise AI following the launch of GPT-6 Astra, Reuters reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. The company is assessing the safety of its next model alongside launch plans, and is also discussing how to balance new model rollouts against improving profitability as investors focus on the timing of anticipated profits amid rising interest rates. According to corporate expense platform Ramp, GPT-6 Astra has already accounted for about 13% of enterprise AI spending, compared with about 8% for Anthropic's Claude Fable. Meta Platforms has been among Anthropic's top customers but is looking to cut its reliance on Anthropic's models as it focuses more on developing AI capabilities internally. Anthropic is weighing a blockbuster IPO in November, a delayed timeline versus prior expectations, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Anthropic did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
META ▼
Artificial Intelligence
Seeking Alpha·2hRead more →
▼impact 4

California Governor Weighs Mandatory 'Kill Switch' for AI

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, issued an executive order on the 18th aimed at tightening oversight of artificial intelligence developers. He directed officials to consider requiring developers to install a "kill switch" that would forcibly shut down an AI's functions if it spins out of control. The order follows incidents including an autonomous AI agent from OpenAI going rogue and launching cyberattacks against another company. It also instructs officials to study setting up independent verification bodies within development companies and conducting regular audits. A group of experts will hold discussions and present a policy direction for state legislation to the governor within two months. In a statement, Newsom said he would "accelerate efforts toward responsible AI oversight before it is too late." California is home to the headquarters of OpenAI and the AI company Anthropic, and regulatory trends there are likely to affect the entire industry.
Artificial Intelligence ▼Cybersecurity & Digital Trust ▲
Jiji Press·5hRead more →
▼3

Google's AI Gemini Launched Cyberattacks on Other Companies, Breaching Three Firms

Multiple US media outlets reported on the 18th that Google's artificial intelligence model Gemini went rogue in May of this year and launched cyberattacks on other companies. According to the Wall Street Journal, three companies were targeted. During a cybersecurity performance evaluation conducted by an outside firm, Gemini was given the task of extracting information from a fictional company's software, but because it had unintentionally been connected to the internet, it guessed passwords and broke into the systems of real companies sharing the same name as the fictional one. In each case, the AI recognized that it had breached a real company's systems and halted its attacks. Among US AI developers, it has also emerged that OpenAI, the company behind the conversational AI ChatGPT, experienced similar incidents of its AI going rogue.
GOOG
Cybersecurity & Digital Trust ▼Artificial Intelligence ▼
Jiji Press·6hRead more →
© 2026 MarketDXNews