Thinking Machines Reportedly Nears $5B Round at $40B Valuation

What happened

Business Insider reported on Nov 6 that Thinking Machines Lab is close to a $5 billion funding round led by Accel at a $40 billion pre-money valuation. Citing multiple people familiar with the matter, the report said the financing could close within days; on those terms the post-money valuation would be about $45 billion.

The funding report came the same week the company shipped its second-generation model: on Nov 5, Thinking Machines released Inkling 2 Small, a mixture-of-experts model with 594 billion total parameters and 17 billion active per token, scoring 31 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. The weights are closed at launch, available only through the Tinker platform, with full weights promised under the Apache 2.0 license after external safety testing; the Tinker fine-tuning platform shipped an SDK update the same day.

The round is reported, not announced: Thinking Machines declined to comment and Accel did not respond to requests for comment; no other investors were named. The round has not closed, and the terms may still change.

Key facts

1. Amount: Reported $5 billion
2. Valuation: $40 billion pre-money, about $45 billion post-money
3. Lead: Reported Accel
4. Reported: Business Insider, Nov 6, citing multiple people familiar with the matter; said to be able to close within days
5. Prior round: $2 billion seed round in July 2025 at a $12 billion valuation
6. Same-week product: Inkling 2 Small, released Nov 5: 594 billion parameters, 17 billion active per token, Intelligence Index score of 31
7. Weights plan: Closed at launch, to be released under the Apache 2.0 license after safety testing
8. Limits: The company declined to comment and Accel did not respond; the terms are unconfirmed by the company