Mira Murati
ONE GIGAWATT FOR A STARTUP
THE DEAL
Murati went from the Model X to OpenAI, where she became the executive connecting research to products like DALL·E and ChatGPT.
AT A GLANCE
1 MORE FACT
- EDUCATION
- Dartmouth College, Thayer School of Engineering · BEDartmouth
THE ARCHIVE
History · cartoons · headlines
THE TIMELINE9 sourced events
SHE RAN OPENAI FOR A FEW DAYS. THEN BUILT A RIVAL
Murati went from the Model X to OpenAI, where she became the executive connecting research to products like DALL·E and ChatGPT. When the board fired Altman, she ran the company for a few days. Then she left and launched Thinking Machines Lab — which ordered a gigawatt of Nvidia hardware.
2012
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING BEFORE MACHINE INTELLIGENCE
Murati studied in a dual-degree program involving Colby College and Dartmouth Engineering, earning an engineering background before entering Silicon Valley product work.
SOURCES: Dartmouth Engineeringreported
2013
TESLA PUTS HER TO WORK ON THE MODEL X
Murati joined Tesla and worked in product development on the Model X, putting software, hardware, manufacturing, and AI-assisted systems into one physical product program.
SOURCES: WIREDreported
2016
FROM CARS TO HAND-TRACKING COMPUTERS
Murati moved to Leap Motion, leading product and engineering work around spatial interfaces and hand-tracking technology.
SOURCES: Dartmouth Engineeringreported
2018
SHE JOINS THE LAB BEFORE CHATGPT EXISTS
Murati joined OpenAI in 2018 and began working on supercomputing strategy and research teams before taking broader responsibility for product deployment.
SOURCES: WIREDreported
Dec 29, 2020
OPENAI PUTS RESEARCH, PRODUCT AND PARTNERSHIPS UNDER HER
OpenAI expanded Murati’s role to senior vice president of Research, Product, and Partnerships after her work on API rollout and integration across the company.
SOURCES: OpenAIfirst-party
May 5, 2022
SHE TAKES THE CTO SEAT AFTER SHIPPING DALL·E
OpenAI named Murati chief technology officer, citing her leadership across research, product, partnerships, and the DALL·E release.
SOURCES: OpenAIfirst-party
Nov 17, 2023
FOR A FEW DAYS, SHE RUNS OPENAI
OpenAI’s board appointed Murati interim CEO when it removed Sam Altman; she returned to the CTO role after Altman came back.
Feb 2025
SHE BUILDS ANOTHER FRONTIER LAB
Murati launched Thinking Machines Lab with a team of researchers and engineers focused on customizable, collaborative AI systems and open scientific work.
SOURCES: Thinking Machines Labfirst-partyReutersreported
Mar 10, 2026
THE NEW LAB ORDERS A GIGAWATT OF NVIDIA
Thinking Machines and Nvidia announced a multi-year partnership targeting at least one gigawatt of next-generation Nvidia systems for frontier-model training and deployment.
SOURCES: Thinking Machines Labfirst-party
MORE CARTOONS1 original cartoons