# Safe Superintelligence's Funding Round Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) is an Israeli-American AI company founded by Ilya Sutskever, Daniel Gross, and Daniel Levy in June 2024, focused on safely developing superintelligent AI. It raised $1 billion in September 2024, reaching a $30 billion valuation by March 2025. Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) is an Israeli-American artificial intelligence company founded in June 2024 by Ilya Sutskever, Daniel Gross, and Daniel Levy. The company focuses exclusively on developing superintelligence - a computer-based agent capable of surpassing human intelligence - while prioritizing safety measures. SSI operates with a small team split between Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel, and has attracted significant investment despite not yet generating revenue. The company emerged from a period of turmoil at [OpenAI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai), where co-founder Sutskever had been involved in a board dispute. SSI's founding team combined expertise from major AI and technology organizations, with Sutskever serving as former chief scientist at OpenAI, Gross having led AI efforts at [Apple](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/apple), and Levy bringing experience as an investor and former OpenAI researcher. ## Founding and Mission On May 15, 2024, Ilya Sutskever left OpenAI following a board dispute in which he voted to fire CEO Sam Altman amid concerns about communication and trust. Sutskever and colleagues believed OpenAI was neglecting its original safety focus in favor of commercialization opportunities. On June 19, 2024, Sutskever announced on X the creation of SSI Inc., alongside Daniel Levy and Daniel Gross. SSI's stated mission is to be the "world's first straight-shot SSI lab," designed to remain unaffected by "management overhead or product cycles" and "insulated from short-term commercial pressures." The company's structure deliberately avoids traditional product development timelines, allowing researchers to focus on long-term safety and capability research in [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence). ## September 2024 Funding Round In September 2024, SSI revealed it had raised $1 billion from prominent venture capital firms including SV Angel, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz. This initial funding was earmarked for expanding computing power and hiring top talent in the field. The round valued the company at approximately $5 billion, reflecting strong investor confidence in the founding team's credentials and the company's focused approach to [AI safety](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/ai-safety). The funding attracted attention because SSI had no revenue and only a small team, but investors were drawn to Sutskever's reputation as a leading researcher in [deep learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/deep-learning) and his central role in developing modern [large language models](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model). ## March 2025 Valuation Milestone In March 2025, SSI reached a $30 billion valuation in a funding round led by Greenoaks Capital. This represented a sixfold increase from the September 2024 valuation. Despite having approximately 20 employees and no revenue, the company attracted substantial investor interest, largely due to Sutskever's reputation and its singular focus on safe superintelligence development. The valuation placed SSI among the most valuable private AI companies, comparable to established players like [Anthropic](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/anthropic) and [Google DeepMind](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/google-deepmind). Investors viewed the company's safety-first approach as a differentiator in a market increasingly concerned about the risks of advanced AI systems. ## Strategic Partnerships and Growth In April 2025, [Google Cloud](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/google-cloud) announced a partnership to provide tensor processing units (TPUs) for SSI's research. This collaboration gave SSI access to specialized hardware for training advanced models, complementing its own compute investments. During the first half of 2025, [Meta](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/meta) reportedly attempted to acquire SSI, but Sutskever rebuffed the approach. In July 2025, co-founder Daniel Gross left the company to join Meta Superintelligence Labs, leaving Sutskever as the sole CEO of SSI. The departure did not appear to affect the company's trajectory, as it continued to attract investment and partnerships. ## Nvidia Partnership and Compute Expansion On July 27, 2026, SSI and [Nvidia](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/nvidia) announced a strategic partnership to expand SSI's compute capacity by "an order of magnitude." The deal included a planned $5 billion investment from Nvidia into SSI, representing one of the largest corporate investments in AI safety-focused research. The partnership was designed to provide SSI with the massive computational resources needed for training superintelligent systems. This collaboration positioned SSI to compete with major AI labs in terms of raw computing power, while maintaining its distinct focus on safety. The Nvidia investment also signaled confidence in SSI's technical approach and long-term viability. ## Team and Research Approach SSI's small team includes researchers and engineers from leading AI organizations, including former members of OpenAI, [DeepMind](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/deepmind), and other top labs. The company's research approach emphasizes safety as a primary design constraint rather than an afterthought, with a focus on developing methods to ensure superintelligent systems remain aligned with human values. The company's structure is intentionally lean, avoiding the large-scale product development teams typical of commercial AI companies. This allows researchers to pursue fundamental questions in [machine learning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/machine-learning) and [neural networks](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/neural-network) without commercial pressure. ## See Also - [AI safety](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/ai-safety) - [Artificial general intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-general-intelligence) - [Existential risk from AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/existential-risk-from-ai) - [OpenAI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai) - [Superintelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/superintelligence) --- Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/safe-superintelligence-round License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Last updated: 2026-09-13T03:51:20.549834+00:00