OpenAI Co-Founder Sutskever's Startup Raises $1 Billion

"OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's new firm, aimed at building "safe" artificial intelligence models, has raised $1 billion from investors.

Safe Superintelligence, or SSI, Sutskever's AI startup, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that its investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global and SV Angel.

NFDG also participated in the fundraising round. NFDG is a venture-capital partnership between Nat Friedman, former chief executive of GitHub, and SSI's co-founder Daniel Gross.

SSI was founded in June with a focus on building safe AI models, shortly after Sutskever left OpenAI, where he was chief scientist and led a team focused on developing safety systems to control AI and keep it in line with a set of human values.

"Building safe superintelligence is the most important technical problem of our time," SSI said on its website.

The company currently has offices in Palo Alto, Calif., and Tel Aviv, and wants to form a small team of "top technical talent" including engineers and researchers, according to the website.

Sutskever left OpenAI in May, months after helping with the initial ousting of Chief Executive Sam Altman, a move he said he regretted just days later." [1]

1. OpenAI Co-Founder Sutskever's Startup Raises $1 Billion. Kao, Kimberley.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 06 Sep 2024: B.4.