Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the AI startup founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised $2 billion in new funding, bringing its valuation to $30 billion. Operating with an unprecedented level of secrecy, SSI aims to develop superintelligence before releasing any products, diverging sharply from industry peers like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.
The company, with offices in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, maintains a workforce of approximately 20 employees and enforces strict confidentiality measures, including requiring job candidates to store their phones in Faraday cages before entering interviews. Despite this secrecy, leading investors such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Greenoaks Capital have contributed to SSI’s rapid funding growth, which saw its valuation soar from $5 billion in September to its current $30 billion mark.
Sutskever, known for his work in deep learning and AI safety, has described SSI’s approach as distinct from OpenAI’s methods, telling associates that his team is pursuing a different path toward superintelligence. He co-founded the company with former OpenAI researcher Daniel Levy and investor Daniel Gross, structuring SSI to focus solely on developing AI systems capable of outperforming human experts across multiple domains.
At OpenAI, Sutskever was regarded as a visionary, frequently contemplating the ethical implications of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Following the global success of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s transition toward a product-driven model reportedly created internal friction, leading to Sutskever’s departure in 2024 after his unsuccessful attempt to remove CEO Sam Altman.
Since its launch, SSI has positioned itself as a research-first organization, rejecting the commercialization strategies of its competitors. In December, Sutskever spoke at the NeurIPS AI conference, where he discussed the future of superintelligence and the possibility of AI systems developing self-awareness. He suggested that these systems could eventually seek rights for themselves but remarked that a future in which AI coexists peacefully with humanity would be an acceptable outcome.
With its latest funding round, SSI has solidified its status as one of the most valuable AI startups globally, signaling strong investor confidence in its long-term vision despite its unconventional secrecy and lack of public-facing products.
