Is artificial superintelligence really coming, and who is preparing for it?
OpenAI's former chief scientist left to start a company with one product: safe superintelligence. Investors valued it at $32 billion before it built anything.
The answer
Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and former chief scientist of OpenAI, departed in May 2024 after the board dispute over Sam Altman's firing. In June 2024, he launched Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) with a singular mission: build safe superintelligence as its first and only product. SSI raised $1 billion in September 2024 from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and DST Global, then reached a staggering $32 billion valuation by April 2025 - despite having no product or revenue. With offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, SSI employs top AI researchers focused exclusively on solving superintelligence safety.
Source: CNBC
- superintelligence
- Ilya Sutskever
- AI safety
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