OpenAI Former Co-Founder Secures $1B Funding for StartUp

Months after his departure from OpenAI, Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and former chief scientist, has reportedly secured $1 billion for his new AI startup, Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI).

Announced on 4 September, the funding came from prominent investors including NFDG, a16z, Sequoia, DST Global, and SV Angel.

While SSI did not officially disclose its valuation, sources suggest it stands at $5 billion.

Launched in June, SSI is co-founded by Sutskever, Daniel Gross—former AI lead at Apple—and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI colleague.

Sutskever serves as chief scientist, Levy as principal scientist, and Gross oversees computing power and fundraising.

SSI noted:

“SSI is our mission, our name, and our entire product roadmap, because it is our sole focus. Our team, investors, and business model are all aligned to achieve SSI.”

This significant funding reflects ongoing investor confidence in top-tier talent and foundational AI research, even as overall interest in such ventures wanes and some founders shift to tech giants.

Gross expressed:

"It's important for us to be surrounded by investors who understand, respect and support our mission, which is to make a straight shot to safe superintelligence and in particular to spend a couple of years doing R&D on our product before bringing it to market."

SSI Founded by Ex-OpenAI Staff

In June 2024, Sutskever and Levy departed from OpenAI, just months after Sutskever established the firm's "Superalignment" safety team.

While Sutskever cited a desire to explore new opportunities, speculation has emerged about internal conflicts between CEO Sam Altman and other executives and board members.

Earlier in the year, Sutskever and Jan Leike resigned from OpenAI following the February departure of Andrej Karpathy.

Leike publicly attributed his exit to insufficient resources and a lack of focus on safety.

Leike wrote:

“Stepping away from this job has been one of the hardest things I have ever done. Because we urgently need to figure out how to steer and control AI systems much smarter than us.”

Sutskever's departure occurred shortly after he led a push to remove Sam Altman as CEO in November 2023, though Altman was reinstated just a week later.

A Safer & More Intelligent AI System

SSI seems to position itself as a direct competitor to OpenAI, albeit with a distinct mission.

SSI aims to develop an AI model with intelligence surpassing that of humans, while ensuring safety, as outlined on its website.

This focus on safe AI development may ring a bell, as Anthropic—a company also founded by former OpenAI employees—shares a similar mission.

OpenAI, too, emphasizes the importance of developing AI safely for humanity's benefit.

What sets SSI apart is its commitment to focusing exclusively on a single product: a safe superintelligence.

This singular focus differentiates it from other players in the field, which often pursue a broader range of AI initiatives.

SSI Plans to Build Small Trustable Team; Has 10 Staff Currently

Sutskever explained that his new venture felt right because he "identified a challenge distinct from my previous work."

Whether SSI, with its modest team of 10 employees, will leverage its $1 billion funding to create the world’s first superintelligence or to develop a leading competitor to ChatGPT remains uncertain.

SSI plans to use the funding to enhance its computing capabilities and recruit top-tier talent.

The company will build a trusted team of researchers and engineers, with operations based in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.