Accel reportedly in talks to lead $1B round for Thinking Machines at $40B valuation
- ID
- 21175
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 04 Sep 2026, 3:36 AM
- Fetched
- 04 Sep 2026, 4:02 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/03/accel-reportedly-in-talks-to-lead-1b-round-for-thinking-machines-at-40b-valuation/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 5.5
- Created
- 04 Sep 2026, 4:04 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_foundersai_ml_learnersdevelopers
What happened
Accel is in talks to lead a $1B round for Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, at a $40B valuation—down from the $50B it reportedly sought. The company has over $100M ARR, implying a ~400x revenue multiple, and recently launched Inkling, an open-weight model monetized via usage-based compute fees on its Tinker platform for adapting models on proprietary data. Several co-founders, including Lilian Weng and Luke Metz, have returned to OpenAI.
Why it matters
For SaaS founders, the 400x revenue multiple signals that investors are still pricing AI labs on talent and platform potential rather than revenue, which affects how you benchmark your own AI startup's positioning. For developers, Inkling and the Tinker platform represent a concrete open-weight option for proprietary-data fine-tuning with usage-based pricing worth evaluating against alternatives like OpenAI or Anthropic offerings.
Discussion angle
Is a 400x revenue multiple at $100M ARR sustainable for an AI lab that has lost co-founders back to OpenAI, and what does that imply about the gap between investor sentiment and actual product traction for builders choosing which model ecosystem to commit to?