Artificial Intelligence · Profile from AI Research Companion
Safe Superintelligence (SSI)
The research lab Ilya Sutskever founded in June 2024, a month after leaving OpenAI, with Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy, to build "safe superintelligence" in "a straight shot" with "one product" and no commercial distractions (company, 19 June 2024). Without releasing a product, a model or a research paper describing its approach, it raised $1bn at a reported ~$5bn valuation (September 2024) and ~$2bn at ~$32bn (April 2025, reported), took TPU capacity from Google Cloud, rebuffed an acquisition approach from Meta and lost Gross to Meta's superintelligence lab (June–July 2025), and in July 2026 signed a strategic partnership with Nvidia that included a reported ~$5bn equity investment (undisclosed by the companies). It had only a few dozen employees, in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv (reported, 2026). SSI is the purest test in this knowledge base of whether investors will pay for researchers' reputations alone, and of Sutskever's argument that the "age of scaling" is giving way to an "age of research" (November 2025).
At a glance
- Founded
- Announced 19 June 2024, by Ilya Sutskever, Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy; incorporated in the US (Delaware, reported)
- Headquarters
- Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel
- Ownership / structure
- Private, venture-backed. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, SV Angel, NFDG (Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross's fund), Greenoaks Capital (lead of the 2025 round), Lightspeed, Alphabet and Nvidia (reported)
- Leadership (2026)
- Ilya Sutskever (co-founder, CEO since July 2025, chief scientist); Daniel Levy (co-founder, president since July 2025)
- AI products
- None released as of this batch. An investor said in August 2026 that SSI planned a first model release that month; SSI did not confirm (reported, verify)
- Scale
- ~10 employees (September 2024, reported); ~20 (March 2025, reported); ~50 (July 2025, reported); "a few dozen" (July 2026, reported). No revenue
- Capital raised
- $1bn (September 2024, ~$5bn valuation, reported); ~$2bn led by Greenoaks at ~$32bn (April 2025, reported; ~$30bn was reported for the March first close); Nvidia investment reported at ~$5bn (27 July 2026; amount and valuation not disclosed by the companies). Disclosed equity before Nvidia ~$3bn (reported); totals including Nvidia reported at ~$7–8bn (verify)
- Key partnerships
- Google Cloud (TPUs for research, April 2025); Nvidia (strategic partnership, Vera Rubin systems, "10x our compute in the next 12 months," July 2026)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Founding after the OpenAI exit (2024); the $1bn raise at ~$5bn (2024); the ~$32bn valuation without a product (2025); the Google Cloud TPU deal (2025); Meta's bid and Daniel Gross's departure (2025); the "age of research" thesis and Sutskever's Musk v. OpenAI testimony (2025–26); the Nvidia partnership and ~$5bn investment (2026)
7 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2024
Founding After the OpenAI Exit
Founding
2024
One Billion Dollar Raise at 5bn
Funding round
2025
32bn Valuation Without a Product
Funding round
2025
Age of Research Thesis and the Musk Trial
Strategy statement / lawsuit testimony (Sutskever as witness)
2025
Google Cloud TPU Deal
Compute deal
2025
Meta Bid and Daniel Gross Departure
Leadership change / failed acquisition approach
2026
Nvidia Partnership and 5bn Investment
Partnership / compute deal / strategic investment