There was a famous tech company in supercomputing and AI, called "Thinking Machines", worked at by people such as Danny Hillis and even Richard Feynman.

Does this new company have some connection to that, such as some of the same people?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking_Machines_Corporation

> Does this new company have some connection to that, such as some of the same people?

Really doubt it. This "Thinking Machines" seems like an on-trend SV AI software startup, that "Thinking Machines" was a Massachusetts-based hardware company that went bankrupt 30 years ago (and whatever's left is Oracle). That "Thinking Machines" people are retiring by now.

I wonder if Sun/Oracle let the trademark lapse, because if it's still active I'd imagine this startup's gonna get sued.

No relation AFAIK, this is Mira Murati's post-OpenAI joint.

Which makes the hero image on this page being a diagram of Danny Hillis' TinkerToy computer all the more baffling.

Probably just an homage - tipping the hat to the predecessor

nope, this is Mira Murati's thinking machines. she used to be the CTO of OpenAI, but started her own thing once she [I think] realized that she was missing out on the gold rush by staying there.