OpenAI co-founder Sutskever’s new safety-focused AI startup SSI raises $1 billion

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) : Safe Superintelligence newly co-founded by OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised $1 billion in cash to help develop safe artificial intelligence systems that far surpass human capabilities, company executives told Reuters.

SSI, which currently has 10 employees, plans to use the funds to acquire computing power and hire top talent. It will focus on building a small highly trusted team of researchers and engineers split between Palo Alto, California and Tel Aviv, Israel.

The company declined to share its valuation but sources close to the matter said it was valued at $5 billion.The funding underlines how some investors are still willing to make outsized bets on exceptional talent focused on foundational AI research. That’s despite a general waning in interest towards funding such companies which can be unprofitable for some time, and which has caused several startup founders to leave their posts for tech giants.

Investors included top venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global and SV Angel. NFDG, an investment partnership run by Nat Friedman and SSI’s Chief Executive Daniel Gross, also participated.

“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,” Gross said in an interview.