Former OpenAI Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever’s AI startup SSI Raises $1 Bn

Safe Superintelligence (SSI), a startup newly Co-founded by OpenAI's former Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised $1 billion in cash to aid the development of safe AI systems that go beyond human capabilities, according to reports.

SSI intends to use the funds to acquire computing power and hire top talent. The company plans to build a small, highly trusted team of researchers and engineers split between Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel.

While SSI declined to disclose the total valuation, the 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.

Unlike OpenAI's unorthodox corporate structure, implemented for AI safety reasons but which made Altman's ouster possible, SSI has a regular for-profit structure. The company is currently extremely driven to hire people who will fit in with its culture.

"One thing that excites us is when you find people that are interested in the work that are not interested in the scene, in the hype," Gross reportedly said.

Further, SSI has revealed that it plans to partner with cloud providers and chip companies to fund its computing power needs but is yet to decide on the firms it would partner with.