Thinking Machines Lab inks massive compute deal with Nvidia

Thinking Machines Lab, the high-profile AI startup founded by former OpenAI executive Mira Murati, has locked in a major multi-year partnership with chip giant Nvidia. The deal, announced Tuesday, commits the two-year-old, $12 billion-valued lab to deploying at least one gigawatt of Nvidia's cutting-edge Vera Rubin AI systems starting in 2027. Nvidia is also making a strategic investment in the company, which has already raised over $2 billion from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and even rival AMD's venture arm.

The partnership includes a commitment to jointly develop training and serving systems optimized for Nvidia's architecture. This massive compute allocation is a crucial resource for Thinking Machines Lab, which is focused on building AI models that produce reproducible results and recently launched its first product, the Tinker API. The deal underscores the intense competition for advanced AI hardware, following reports of OpenAI's own historic $300 billion compute deal with Oracle last year. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has predicted the industry could spend up to $4 trillion on AI infrastructure by 2030.

Despite its young age and high-profile co-founder departures to Meta and OpenAI, Thinking Machines Lab continues to attract significant capital and partnerships. Murati stated the collaboration "accelerates our capacity to build AI that people can shape and make their own." The undisclosed value of the deal highlights the premium placed on securing next-generation compute, positioning the startup with the hardware foundation needed to compete in the race to develop advanced, reliable AI systems.