Alphabet, Nvidia bet big on AI startup Safe Superintelligence’s $32B surge

Ilya Sutskever, after leaving OpenAI due to internal conflicts, co-founded Safe Superintelligence (SSI) with Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy, focusing on developing advanced AI models that surpass current systems, enabling autonomous reasoning and exceeding human cognitive capabilities

Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the stealth-mode AI startup co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has rapidly climbed to a $32 billion valuation following a fresh funding round that drew major investments from Alphabet and Nvidia. Launched in June 2023, SSI has quickly emerged as a frontrunner in the race to develop next-generation artificial intelligence systems.

Reports quoting sources close to the matter revealed that the recent funding round was spearheaded by venture firm Greenoaks with a $500 million contribution, alongside Lightspeed Venture Partners and Andreessen Horowitz. The company had earlier raised $1 billion in September 2023 at a $5 billion valuation, highlighting a meteoric rise in investor confidence.

Founders aim beyond current AI

Sutskever, who left OpenAI after a high-profile internal power struggle, founded SSI with Daniel Gross, previously an AI lead at Apple, and AI researcher Daniel Levy. With dual headquarters in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, SSI has kept its research and product development tightly under wraps. However, industry insiders suggest the company is focused on building AI models that go well beyond current capabilities, aiming to create systems that can reason, learn autonomously, and eventually exceed human cognitive performance.

Alphabet’s cloud division has also reached a strategic agreement with SSI to provide its proprietary Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), a significant shift from Google’s previous approach of limiting TPU access to internal teams. This signals growing trust in SSI’s potential and a willingness to support emerging players in high-stakes AI innovation. Despite Nvidia's dominance in AI computing hardware, SSI’s preference for TPUs could indicate a shift in AI infrastructure strategies.

Tech giants fuel AI race

The competition among tech giants to back top AI talent and infrastructure is heating up. While Microsoft has committed to OpenAI, Amazon and Google are both heavily invested in Anthropic, another fast-growing AI lab. Nvidia, meanwhile, has placed its bets on several players, including OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI.

SSI’s long-term ambition, reports say, is to develop safe superintelligence—AI systems capable of reasoning and decision-making far beyond today’s language models. While the company has not publicly detailed its roadmap, its focus on safety and autonomy suggests it is working to avoid the ethical and safety pitfalls that have surrounded rapid AI development in recent years.

With elite leadership, massive funding, and growing interest from cloud and chip leaders, SSI is poised to become a pivotal force in the evolving AI landscape.