Ilya Sutskever's startup Safe Superintelligence (SSI) has raised $1 billion to develop safe AI models and expand its business.
Raising Investments
The startup founded by Ilya Sutskever has raised $1 billion from investors to expand its activities, including building safe AI models. The three-month-old business currently has no product but is valued at about $5 billion. Among the investors are some of the biggest venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, and SV Angel NFDG.
Attracting New Talent
The startup plans to invest the raised funds in computational resources to develop its models and attract highly skilled talent necessary to build the business and compete in the AI sector. The team will consist of researchers and engineers based in California, Palo Alto, and Tel Aviv, Israel. Ilya Sutskever, who was previously the chief scientist at OpenAI, co-founded SSI in June this year with another former OpenAI staffer and researcher Daniel Levy, and Apple’s former lead and Cue co-founder Daniel Gross.
Competing with Industry Leaders
SSI is building cutting-edge AI models aimed at competing with already established companies, including Sutskever’s former employer OpenAI, Elon Musk’s xAI, and Anthropic. Competition in the AI sector is intensifying, and companies are constantly upgrading their models and launching new products. OpenAI is reportedly in negotiations with investors to raise billions of dollars at a valuation of more than $100 billion, while peers Anthropic and xAI were valued at nearly $20 billion each in funding rounds earlier this year. SSI aims to create a safe superintelligence system and plans to focus on research and development over the next few years before bringing the product to market.
Ilya Sutskever's startup SSI has secured significant investments to develop safe AI models. Amidst increasing competition, the company will focus on attracting top talent and developing advanced technologies.
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