Another Day. Another Crazy Valuation.
xAI, which was valued at $113 Billion in March 2025 when it merged with X (Twitter), is now raising $15 Billion at a $230 Billion valuation.
WSJ says xAI is burning cash rapidly, as it works to improve Grok.
WSJ Article -> Exclusive | Elon Musk’s xAI Is in Advanced Talks to Raise $15 Billion, Lifting Valuation – WSJ
Elon Musk has denied the fundraising on Twitter/X.
In very interesting news, Thinking Machines Lab has landed Soumith Chintala, who had left Facebook earlier.
Who is Soumith Chintala + Why is it big news that he is joining Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab?
You can read all about Soumith Chintala at his website -> Soumith Chintala
What does Twitter have to say?
Some interesting tweets ->
As one of the people questioning Thinking Machines Lab’s valuation, my rebuttal would be -> Adding one AI superstar doesn’t justify that. Even adding 10 AI superstars would not justify that. $50 billion is more than the market cap of Ford.
I’d also tend to disagree with Cody Blakeney claiming ‘now is the right time to go big on model customization and infra’. However, that is a completely different conversation.
The Information is again bringing up Mira Murati’s fundraising efforts -> https://www.theinformation.com/briefings/exclusive-muratis-thinking-machines-aims-raise-5-billion
This AI rumor showing up for the 2nd time in 3 days suggests that either
Or
Just my gut instinct.
Every other AI company is just raising and announcing after the raise.
If Thinking Machines Lab are leaking news that ‘they are raising at $50 Billion Valuation’ without confirming, it means they are either shopping around and trying to increase the valuation, or that they don’t yet have a firm commit.
What a world we live in – A company that is 9 months old and has no product yet and has just one API is raising $5 billion at a $50 billion valuation. And it is shopping around. It actually thinks it can get a $55 or $60 Billion valuation.
WSJ Reference: Jeff Bezos Proejct Prometheus – New AI Startup
Reference: Jeff Bezos launches $9.5b AI start-up called Project Prometheus
Interesting Details on Jeff Bezos’ new AI startup Prometheus AI
Lots of good coverage
As you can imagine, everyone is buzzing about such a well capitalized AI startup, from such a rich person.
Thoughts on Pormetheus AI from Jeff Bezos and Vik Bajaj
Straight from Nikkei (Sakana AI takes crown as Japan’s most valuable unicorn – Nikkei Asia)
Everything you wanted to know about Sakana AI, but were too afraid to ask
Funding Rounds for Sakana AI
Mercor AI Cap Table – Executive Summary on Nov 14th, 2025
Interesting that employees have such a small share of Equity.
Please Note: This is based on publicly available information and might not be accurate.
Please Note: This cap table might change significantly as Mercor AI raises more investments and/or due to other reasons.
Mercor AI Funding Rounds
Mercor AI History
The 3 co-founders met in high school in debate competitions. They continued to work together even as Hiremath went to Harvard and Foody and Midha went to Georgetown.
Mercor was launched in 2023 primarily to connected talented developers with US companies looking for coders.
Mercor pivoted to using AI to match experts in fields such as Law, Medicine, and Engineering with AI companies looking for subject area experts to train AI models.
This article has more details -> Youngest Billionaires: AI unicorn Mercor forges three new billionaires at 22
As does this one -> These 22-Year-Olds Are Now The World’s Youngest Self-Made Billionaires
2 interesting side notes
How did Mercor AI become a $10 billion company in just 3 years?
Mercor AI pivoted from finding software developers for AI companies, to finding subject area experts to train LLMs for AI companies.
When Scale AI was acquired by Meta, there was a void and Mercor AI was able to step in and fill the surge in demand for finding subject area experts.
What happens when AI Models have trained enough to not need subject area experts?
Well, that would certainly be interesting. The demand for Mercor AI’s services would dry up.
Hopefully, Mercor AI is setting aside some of the funds it is raising for that eventuality. Might be 5 years away.
What happens if the AI Bubble bursts?
In that case, all AI companies will face a reckoning. I would suspect companies like Surge AI and Scale AI and Mercor AI would pivot into offshoring and near shorting and related areas.
Again, if they are smart they would set aside a lot of the money they are raising for the near-certainty that the AI Bubble will burst in the next 1 to 5 years.
Wall Street Journal is reporting that AI Marketing startup Alembic AI is raising $145 million at a $645 million valuation in a Series B round.
Alembic AI Fundraising Rounds
WndrCo has introduced Alembic AI to new clients, including Mars and Delta Air Lines.
Alembic AI’s first customer was Nvidia. So interesting.
Lots of Good Information at Silicon Angle -> Alembic Technologies raises $145M and buys an Nvidia-powered supercomputer to accelerate ‘causal AI’ – SiliconANGLE
Updates from Alembic Employees on Linked In
Alembic AI on Linked In and Employee posts ->
Thinking Machines, which is less than a year old, is raising money at a $50 billion valuation.
Thinking Machines 2nd Website -> Thinking Machines Lab | Building the Future of Collaborative AI
The valuation might even rise to $55 to $60 Billion.
Reference: Murati’s Thinking Machines in Funding Talks at $50 Billion Value – Bloomberg
Who is Mira Murati?
Mira Murati is the Ex Chief Technological Officer of OpenAI.
She is co-founder and CEO of Thinking Machines Lab.
What is thinking Machines Lab?
Thinking Machines Lab is an AI startup founded by Mira Murati, Ex CTO of Open AI.
Ms. Murati had left OpenAI in September 2024 and formally announced Thinking Machines Lab in Feb 2025. The Thinking Machines Lab website says it was founded in Feb 2025.
Murati is CEO, Barret Zoph is CTO and John Schulman is Chief Scientist. Zoph left OpenAI in September. Schulman departed OpenAI in August for Anthropic, and then left Anthropic for Thinking Machines Lab.
This is interesting -> One of the key gaps that Murati wants to address is the gulf between the capabilities of AI systems and humans’ ability to understand and use them.
Why is Thinking Machines being valued at $50 billion roughly a year after launching as a company?
Well, firstly, we do have an AI Bubble.
Secondly, the Top 100 to Top 300 people in AI are valued very highly, and their startups are always valued very highly.
As Thinking Machines Lab has Murati (former CTO of Open AI) and other OpenAI people, it has many of the Top 100/Top 300 AI minds. They also have (according to their website) a world-class team of 30 renowned researchers and engineers from Open AI, Google, DeepMind, Meta, and Mistral.
Create one of the best groups of Top 100/Top 300 people in AI and you’re guaranteed to see very high valuations.
Thinking Machines Launch & Funding Timeline
Thinking Machines rough timeline
The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article on Microsoft’s new AI ‘Super Factory’ -> Exclusive | Inside Microsoft’s New AI ‘Super Factory’ – WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/inside-microsofts-new-ai-super-factory-3144d211
Microsoft’s AI Super Factory
Reference
Open AI Cap Table Executive Summary – 11/11/2025
Please Note: This is based on publicly available information and might be inaccurate.
Please Note: This is subject to change based on further fund raising by OpenAI and on sales by current investors and current employees.
Open AI Investments & Funding Rounds
You can also check Traxcn for a different take on OpenAI’s funding rounds -> OpenAI – 2025 Funding Rounds & List of Investors – Tracxn (https://tracxn.com/d/companies/openai/__kElhSG7uVGeFk1i71Co9-nwFtmtyMVT7f-YHMn4TFBg/funding-and-investors#funding-rounds).
Open AI Original Founding Details
OpenAI was originally founded as a Non Profit with $1 Billion of Grant Money from Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, Infosys and others.
Open AI Seed Round Details
In 2016 OpenAI participated in YCombinator. The usual funding from YCombinator is $120K for 7% Equity.
It is not clear whether YCombinator took any equity. It is also not clear whether YCombinator invested any money in Open AI.
Open AI Series A Details
A master stroke by Microsoft where Microsoft invested $1 Billion in OpenAI on July 22nd, 2019 and got its foot in the door.
Open AI Series B Details
Microsoft invested $10 Billion at a $27 Billion valuation on Jan 23rd, 2023. This got Microsoft 32.5% equity.
Even now, after further rounds, Microsoft still has 27% equity in OpenAI.
Open AI Series C Details
This was a relatively small investment of $300 Million at an Unknown Valuation on April 28th, 2023.
As it is close after Microsoft’s $10 billion investment it would not be a surprise if the valuation was $27 or $30 Billion.
The investors included Tiger Global, Andreesen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Flat Capital etc. It almost seems like a ‘let the big players in Silicon Valley get a small piece’ round.
Open AI Series D Details
This was a $6.6 Billion investment at a $157 Billion valuation on Oct 2nd, 2024.
Investors were led by Thrive Capital and included Khosla Ventures, Microsoft, etc.
Debt Funding between Series D and Series E in October 2024
OpenAI took on $4 billion of conventional debt on Oct 7th, 2024 from Wells Fargo, UBS, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, etc. This was just a debt round and not VC funding.
Open AI Series E Details
This was SoftBank investing $40 Billion at a $300 Billion valuation on Mar 31st, 2025.
There were also other investors including Microsoft, Coatue, and Thrive Capital.
Deal AI - Deals, Funding, Acquisitions & Mergers in AI 