Who is Mira Murati, the AI expert who rejected Mark Zuckerberg's ₹83,00,00,00,000 Meta offer to build world's most powerful AI?

Economic Times

a day ago

Mira Murati, 36, isn't just another name in Silicon Valley. She's the woman who looked a $1 billion offer from Meta straight in the face — and turned it down. Every single member of her team at Thinking Machines Lab did the same.In an exclusive report by Wired, Murati confirmed, 'So far at Thinking Machines Lab, not a single person has taken the offer.'Meta had approached her newly founded AI startup with compensation packages ranging from $200,000 to as high as $1 billion. The goal: to lure talent into its newly launched Superintelligence Lab.But her team wasn't swayed. According to India.com, the reason was simple, they believe in the long-term value of their equity and in Murati's vision more than any short-term windfall.Meta has pushed back. As quoted by Wired, Meta's communications director Andy Stone said, 'We made offers only to a handful of people at TML and while there was one sizeable offer, the details are off. At the end of the day, this all begs the question who is spinning this narrative and why.'
Still, Murati's account stands. She says Meta tried to acquire Thinking Machines, just as it had attempted with ScaleAI before. The attempt failed.Born in 1988 in Vlorë, Albania, Murati's early life was shaped by a changing political landscape. At 16, she won a scholarship to Pearson College UWC in British Columbia, Canada, a school known for promoting global citizenship and critical thinking.That experience laid the foundation for her future. After finishing the International Baccalaureate programme, she pursued a dual academic path: a Bachelor of Arts at Colby College in 2011 and a Bachelor of Engineering from Dartmouth's Thayer School in 2012.That blend of liberal arts and engineering proved essential in shaping how she thinks about technology, people and the world.Murati started her career at Zodiac Aerospace, then moved to Tesla where she worked on the Model X as a senior product manager. From there, she joined Leap Motion (now Ultraleap), where she explored gesture-based computing and augmented reality.
But her defining chapter began in 2018 when she joined OpenAI as Vice President of Applied AI and Partnerships. By 2022, she was promoted to Chief Technology Officer. Under her leadership, OpenAI launched groundbreaking tools like ChatGPT, DALL·E, Codex and Sora. In November 2023, during a leadership crisis at OpenAI, Murati briefly stepped in as interim CEO after Sam Altman was removed. She was one of the senior leaders who questioned his management. Although Altman returned within days, Murati eventually left the company in September 2024 to start her own venture.Founded in February 2025, Thinking Machines Lab is an AI public benefit startup that aims to build general-purpose, accessible and ethical AI systems. It raised $2 billion in seed funding by July — the largest seed round in tech history — at a $12 billion valuation.
The startup is backed by names like Nvidia, AMD, Accel, Cisco, ServiceNow and the Albanian government. The company has hired talent from OpenAI, Meta and French AI firm Mistral. Although it hasn't released a product yet, industry insiders are watching closely.A source told Wired the company is developing AI systems that could help tackle major global problems such as disease, climate change and inequality. And unlike many other players, Murati's approach includes bringing experts from outside the AI world — scientists, policymakers and researchers — into the conversation early.What makes this story even more unusual is that, in the high-stakes world of AI, talent often follows money. But not in Murati's case.As per India.com, the team values independence and sees the mission of Thinking Machines Lab as larger than any corporate payout.They want to build AI from the ground up, in a way that reflects their values — not someone else's roadmap.Murati's influence hasn't gone unnoticed. She was named in Time's 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2024 and in Fortune's Most Powerful Women in Business in 2023.
Her company's funding success is also rare in a sector where female-led startups still receive only a fraction of venture capital. According to Female Founders Fund, just 2.1% of VC money last year went to startups founded solely by women. And yet Murati secured $2 billion. Her startup has no product, but a clear vision, an elite team, and the trust of heavyweight investors.This isn't just about turning down money. It's about who gets to shape the future of AI.Murati has made it clear that she's not just building tools. She's building a framework for how AI should work — inclusive, transparent and accountable. In her own story, there's a message to young technologists, especially women: that you don't need to follow the usual path to lead the next revolution.So when Zuckerberg came knocking with ₹8,300 crore, she had an answer ready. No. Because some visions aren't for sale.