Mira Murati, six months after departing OpenAI, has secured one of the boldest fundraising achievements in Silicon Valley history. The enigmatic AI venture Mind Machines recently completed a $2 billion seed round at a $100 billion valuation - despite still maintaining secrecy about its core development projects. Key Highlights

• With just six months of operation, Mind Machines now commands a $100 billion valuation
• A16z led the $2 billion financing round with minimum investment thresholds set at $500 million
• Murati has assembled key former OpenAI leaders including John Schulman and Bob McGrew

This transaction underscores investors' intense interest in proven AI talent, even in the absence of disclosed product specifics. Insider sources reveal several funds withdrew due to Murati's refusal to share product roadmaps or financial projections. However, top-tier investors like Andreessen Horowitz chose to back her based on her exceptional track record. During her six-year tenure at OpenAI, Murati spearheaded development of ChatGPT, DALL-E, and the code generation system Codex. She served as interim CEO following Sam Altman's brief boardroom dismissal in November 2024. Her September departure occurred amid broader OpenAI exodus, with key figures like co-founder John Schulman (who previously left for Anthropic) now rejoining her team. The unique governance structure grants Murati extraordinary control - she holds voting rights exceeding the combined total of all other directors. For a six-month-old company operating under strict secrecy, this level of authority is unprecedented. Yet in today's AI landscape, it's not entirely novel. Safety-conscious superintelligence venture founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever also raised $2 billion at $320 billion valuation without disclosing any products. This $2 billion infusion places Mind Machines among an exclusive group. By comparison, OpenAI itself raised $66 billion at $157 billion valuation in October 2024, while Elon Musk's xAI secured $60 billion in two rounds this year. Notably, those companies at least have market products and revenue streams to validate their operations. According to insiders, Mind Machines is focusing on Artificial General Intelligence - the theoretical point where AI systems match or exceed human cognitive capabilities across all domains. This aligns precisely with the objectives pursued by OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, and nearly all major AI research labs. The secrecy strategy appears deliberately calculated. In an industry where technical details could provide competitive advantages, maintaining silence until achieving tangible breakthroughs makes strategic sense. Both OpenAI and Anthropic adopted similar confidentiality approaches in their early stages, only revealing capabilities when ready for deployment. However, this approach carries inherent risks. Building AGI requires massive computational resources, specialized expertise, and years of uncertain research outcomes. Even with $2 billion in funding, the company must demonstrate rapid progress to justify its valuation and secure future investments. For investors, this represents a classic Silicon Valley high-stakes bet: those who built today's leading AI systems can replicate success, potentially even surpassing previous achievements. With trillions in market potential at stake, human capital remains the most scarce resource, making this calculated risk particularly attractive. Importantly, Murati now secures invaluable assets in the fast-evolving AI arena: time and resources to develop without immediate public or competitive scrutiny over each technical decision.