San Francisco, 10 March 2026 – Nvidia is deepening its push into the artificial intelligence ecosystem with a new investment in Thinking Machines Lab, the AI startup founded by former OpenAI technology chief Mira Murati.
The partnership will see Nvidia both invest capital in the startup and supply advanced AI chips to power the company’s computing infrastructure, as competition intensifies among companies building next-generation artificial intelligence models.
Massive Computing Power for AI Training
Under the multiyear agreement, Thinking Machines Lab will deploy at least one gigawatt of Nvidia’s next-generation AI computing systems, powered by the company’s upcoming Vera Rubin AI accelerators.
The scale of computing power involved is enormous, roughly equivalent to the electricity needed to power about 750,000 homes, highlighting the extraordinary infrastructure required to train advanced AI models.
The chips are expected to be deployed beginning next year as the startup ramps up efforts to develop frontier AI technologies.
Startup Racing to Compete in the AI Arms Race
Thinking Machines Lab was founded in 2025 by Murati after leaving OpenAI and has quickly emerged as one of the most closely watched new entrants in the artificial intelligence sector.
The San Francisco-based startup previously raised about US$2 billion in early funding at a valuation of roughly US$12 billion, attracting investors eager to back new challengers in the rapidly expanding AI industry.
The company is building AI tools designed to help businesses train and customise large language models, including its early product known as Tinker, which allows organisations to fine-tune AI systems without complex infrastructure management.
Nvidia Expands Role as AI Infrastructure Backbone
For Nvidia, the investment reflects a broader strategy of financing and supplying compute power to emerging AI companies, ensuring they rely on Nvidia hardware to train and deploy their models.
The chip giant has already taken similar positions with several leading AI firms, reinforcing its status as the backbone of the global AI computing ecosystem.
Industry analysts note that such partnerships allow Nvidia to capture value both as an investor and as the primary supplier of the high-performance chips required to run modern AI models.
Rapid Growth Amid Intense Competition
Thinking Machines Lab has grown rapidly since its launch, expanding its workforce from around 30 employees to more than 100 within a year, while recruiting talent from major AI companies and research institutions.
The Nvidia partnership is expected to significantly accelerate the startup’s ability to build large-scale AI systems and compete with industry leaders such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind.
Despite some recent leadership changes and high-profile departures, the deal signals strong investor confidence in Murati’s ability to build a major new AI platform.
AI Infrastructure Spending Accelerates
The agreement also underscores the massive capital commitments flowing into artificial intelligence infrastructure worldwide.
Training cutting-edge AI models increasingly requires vast clusters of GPUs, specialised chips and large data-centre facilities, pushing technology companies to invest tens of billions of dollars in computing capacity.
As the race to build more powerful AI systems intensifies, partnerships between chipmakers and AI labs are likely to become a defining feature of the next phase of the global AI boom.
