Ermira "Mira" Murati (born 16 December 1988) is an Albanian-American business executive.[1][2] She launched an AI startup called Thinking Machines Lab in February 2025. Previously she was the chief technology officer of OpenAI, and a senior product manager at Tesla.
Murati was born on 16 December 1988 in Vlorë, Albania.[3][4][5] She is fluent in Italian.[6]
Murati interned in 2011 as a summer analyst at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, Japan.[3][15] She then briefly worked for Zodiac Aerospace as an intern before joining the electric car company Tesla in 2013 as a product manager on the Model X.[3] From 2016 to 2018, she worked for the augmented reality start-up Leap Motion (now Ultraleap).[3]
In 2018, she joined OpenAI as the VP of Applied AI and partnerships.[16][17] She became chief technology officer (CTO) in May 2022.[18] She led OpenAI's work on ChatGPT, Dall-E, Codex and Sora, while overseeing its research, product and safety teams.[16][19][20][21] She oversaw technical advancements and direction of OpenAI's various projects, including the development of advanced AI models and tools. Murati worked on several of OpenAI's notable products, such as the
In November 2023, Murati became interim chief executive officer of OpenAI following the removal of Sam Altman from the job.[27][28][29][30] She had collaborated with Ilya Sutskever, whose 52-page memo outlining concerns about Altman relied heavily on screenshots and information she provided, which contributed to the board's decision to oust him.[31][32] Murati was replaced by Emmett Shear three days later, who left when Altman was reinstated five days later. Following these events, Murati returned to her role as CTO.[33][34]
In September 2024, Murati announced that she was stepping down as CTO to allow her the opportunity to "do my own exploration".[38] This move came amid a wider executive exodus as OpenAI chief research officer Bob McGrew and a vice president of research, Barret Zoph, also announced their departures soon after.[39]
In February 2025, Murati launched a new public benefit corporation called Thinking Machines Lab, the stated purpose of which is to "make AI systems more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable."[40][41] She was reported to have hired "a team of about 30 leading researchers and engineers from competitors including Meta, Mistral, and OpenAI."[42][43][44][45] People involved with the startup include OpenAI cofounder John Schulman, and advisors Alec Radford and Bob McGrew. The following month, Bloomberg reported that the company had reached an estimated valuation of $9 billion, with an "average founder stake value" of $1.4 billion.
In April 2025, Thinking Machines Lab reportedly aimed for a $2 billion seed round (requiring a minimum investment of $50 million).[41][47][48][49] The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and included participation from the government of Albania, valuing the company at $12 billion.[50][1]
Thinking Machines Lab follows a governance structure wherein Mira Murati holds a deciding vote on board matters, weighted to provide her with a majority decision-making capability.[51]
