Mirendil in Talks to Raise at $5 Billion Valuation Led by Kleiner Perkins

September 22, 2026 at 09:16 PM2 min

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Mirendil, an AI startup founded by former Anthropic researchers, is in talks to raise new funding at a $5 billion valuation, including the investment. Kleiner Perkins is in talks to lead the round, which could bring up to $1 billion in new capital, with Andreessen Horowitz also in discussions to invest. The talks come three months after Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz led a $200 million seed round that valued Mirendil at $1 billion.

Key Facts

Mirendil is in talks to raise new funding at a $5 billion valuation, including the investment.
Kleiner Perkins is in talks to lead the round, which could bring up to $1 billion in new capital.
Andreessen Horowitz is in discussions to invest in the round as well.
The talks come three months after Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz led a $200 million seed round that valued Mirendil at $1 billion.
Mirendil plans to launch a frontier model to support engineering and research work by the beginning of next year.

Funding Talks

Mirendil, an artificial intelligence startup launched by former Anthropic PBC researchers, is in talks to raise a new round of funding at a $5 billion valuation, including the investment. Kleiner Perkins is in talks to lead the current financing effort, which could bring up to $1 billion in new capital to the startup. Andreessen Horowitz is in discussions to invest in the round as well. The discussions come three months after Kleiner Perkins and Andreessen Horowitz led a $200 million seed round for the startup, valuing it at $1 billion.

Company and Technology

Mirendil, now with more than 20 staffers, was started earlier this year with the goal of building widely accessible models capable of improving themselves with little to no help from humans. This strategy, known as recursive self-improvement, is seen by some firms as the future of AI development, though concerns exist about potential security threats. The new funding would be used to help the startup launch its own model and train future ones. Mirendil is planning to launch a frontier model to support engineering and research work by the beginning of next year.

Industry Context

The deal talks suggest continued investor demand for neo-labs, companies prioritizing ambitious research projects over short-term commercialization. Other neo-labs on the fundraising circuit include Thinking Machines Lab, started by OpenAI's former chief technology officer, and Periodic Labs, a scientific discovery company. Recursive self-improvement is a massive area of interest for leading AI developers, including Anthropic and OpenAI, because of its potential to speed innovation. Anthropic recently shared that its Claude chatbot drives more than a quarter of the company's research and development work for AI.