General Intuition vs Thinking Machines Lab

General Intuition Raises $220M at $6.2B Valuation

General Intuition, an AI company focused on building foundation models for real-world autonomy, has raised $220 million at a $6.2 billion valuation. The company will use the funds to scale its team in New York and Europe and continue training its models on billions of action-labelled videos, leveraging data from Medal, which is on track to upload 3 billion videos per year. The models are designed to handle autonomy across various environments and actions, including in the real world. The funding round was backed by Valor Equity Partners, Atreides, 776, Point72, Khosla Ventures, and General Catalyst. General Intuition has also opened a waitlist for partners seeking early access to its models.

• General Intuition raised $220 million at a $6.2 billion valuation.
• The funding round was backed by Valor Equity Partners, Atreides, 776, Point72, Khosla Ventures, and General Catalyst.
• General Intuition plans to scale its team in New York and Europe.

General Intuition Raises $220M at $6.2B Valuation

AI firm General Intuition has raised an additional $220 million at a $6.2 billion valuation. The round was led by Valor Equity Partners, with participation from Atreides, 776, Point72, Khosla Ventures, and General Catalyst. This follows a January funding round of $320 million at a $2.3 billion valuation. General Intuition develops foundation models for autonomous systems, trained on billions of action-labelled gameplay videos from Medal, a platform with over 17 million monthly active players and on track to upload 3 billion videos per year. Medal and General Intuition operate as sister companies under a shared parent. The company plans to grow its team in New York and Europe and has opened a waitlist for early access partners.

• General Intuition raised $220 million at a $6.2 billion valuation.
• Funding round led by Valor Equity Partners with participation from Atreides, 776, Point72, Khosla Ventures, and General Catalyst.
• Previously raised $320 million in January at a $2.3 billion valuation.

AI Investors Pour Billions into World Models After LLMs

The article discusses the emerging trend of AI investors shifting focus from large language models (LLMs) to 'world models'—AI systems that understand and simulate the physical world. This shift is seen as the next big opportunity, with billions of dollars flowing into startups working on these models. However, the article notes that most of these ventures lack a clear business model or revenue generation, making them speculative investments. The piece highlights specific examples like MicroAGI, a startup deploying robotic cleaners in Munich, and mentions significant funding rounds in the sector, including a $320M investment in General Intuition and a record funding for AMI Labs led by Yann LeCun. The article is behind a paywall, so detailed analysis is limited.

• Investors are pouring billions into 'world models' as the next big AI opportunity after LLMs.
• MicroAGI is a startup deploying robots for cleaning tasks in Munich, showcasing world model applications.
• General Intuition raised $320 million from celebrity investors for its world model technology.

Putting Task Expertise into RL Achieves State-of-the-Art Performance on Text-to-SQL

Thinking Machines Lab announced two new updates: a research breakthrough in RL for text-to-SQL and new safety research grants.

Barret Zoph Joins Google as VP of Research

Barret Zoph, co‑founder of AI startup Thinking Machines Lab and a former OpenAI employee, has taken a role as vice president of research at Google. Zoph previously co‑founded Thinking Machines with Mira Murati after leaving OpenAI in October 2024, briefly returned to OpenAI in January 2026 to lead AI enterprise sales, and departed in June 2026 after a five‑month stint. Tech reporting notes Zoph was fired from Thinking Machines earlier this year. Google said it expects Zoph to contribute reinforcement learning and post‑training expertise to its Gemini efforts. The move is one of several high‑profile executive shifts in the AI industry this year.

• Barret Zoph co‑founded Thinking Machines Lab and later rejoined OpenAI.
• Zoph spent five months at OpenAI in 2026 heading AI enterprise sales and left in June 2026.
• Zoph was reported to have been fired from Thinking Machines earlier in 2026.