Former OpenAI Scientist’s Startup Raises $1B Seed Funding

A three-month-old startup promising safe artificial intelligence raised $1 billion in an all-cash deal in a seed funding round.

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Co-founded by former OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, Safe Superintelligence Inc., or SSI, will reportedly use the funds to acquire computing power and, according to the founding team, a “lean, cracked team of the world’s best engineers and researchers dedicated to focusing on SSI and nothing else.”

The company, led by Sutskever, former Apple AI lead Daniel Gross and ex-OpenAI technical staffer Daniel Levy, has 10 employees and is reportedly valued at $5 billion. Sutskever is the chief scientist, Levy is the principal scientist and Gross heads the computing power and fundraising aspects of the company.

The investors include venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global and SV Angel, with participation from NFDG, an investment partnership run by Nat Friedman and SSI’s Gross.

The company expects to spend years on the research and development of super-intelligent AI that is safe for humans before releasing products to the market. The for-profit company’s “singular focus” means there will be no distraction from management overhead or product cycles and a business model that emphasizes safety, security and progress insulated from short-term commercial pressures, the company’s founders said.

“We approach safety and capabilities in tandem, as technical problems to be solved through revolutionary engineering and scientific breakthroughs. We plan to advance capabilities as fast as possible while making sure our safety always remains ahead,” the co-founders said.

“This way, we can scale in peace.”

The American company has operations in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv.

This is the first time a startup merely three months old has raised $1 billion. It’s also an outlier in a different way, since interest in AI investment is waning as startups remain unprofitable.

Sutskever was among the board members that voted to oust OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and reversed his decision days later to sign a letter demanding Altman’s return and his fellow board members’ resignation. Sutskever was removed from the board shortly before he quit the company in May. OpenAI disbanded the “superalignment” team he led – a security team that was set up to prevent AI systems from going rogue.