Mira Murati, the CTO of OpenAI who announced her departure last month, is raising venture capital funds for a new AI startup, according to Reuters.
This startup would focus on creating AI products based on proprietary models and could raise more than $100 million in this round.
When she left, Murati wrote on X that OpenAI had “fundamentally changed the way AI systems learn and reason through complex problems” in its recent releases. She said, “I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration,” but did not elaborate on her plans.
Before joining OpenAI as VP of Applied AI and Partnerships in 2018, Murati worked at Tesla and Leap Motion. She was promoted to CTO in 2022 – and was even named interim CEO during the brief ouster of co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.
Murati is among several OpenAI executives to depart recently; OpenAI’s director of research and vice president of research announced their departure a few hours after her. A week later, OpenAI announced that it had raised $6.6 billion in the largest venture capital round of all time.