OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever's AI start-up eyes $20B valuation
What's the story
Safe Superintelligence (SSI), an AI start-up co-founded by OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, is in talks to raise funds at a valuation of at least $20 billion, according to Reuters.
If the deal goes through, this would be a major jump from SSI's last valuation of $5 billion in September last year.
Funding history
Previous funding and future plans
In its last funding round, SSI raised $1 billion from five investors including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), and DST Global.
The current fundraising discussions are still in their early stages and the terms could change.
The exact amount that SSI is aiming to raise has not been disclosed yet.
However, its fundraising challenges whether top AI ventures can still secure premium valuations after the industry's reassessment, sparked by Chinese start-up DeepSeek's launch of its low-cost AI last month.
Company mission
SSI's mission and market response
Despite not generating any revenue yet, SSI has said its goal is to create "safe superintelligence" that exceeds human intelligence but stays aligned with human interests.
Founded in June, the company has offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv.
ALong with Sutskever, SSI's co-founders include Daniel Gross, former leader of AI initiatives at Apple, and Daniel Levy, an ex-OpenAI researcher.
Investor attraction
Sutskever's reputation fuels investor interest in SSI
Investor interest in SSI is largely driven by Sutskever's reputation and his team's innovative approach to AI.
In the AI community, Sutskever is highly regarded for his contributions to generative AI breakthroughs.
He was an early proponent of scaling, a concept that involves dedicating large amounts of computing power and data to refining AI models.
Strategic direction
SSI's unique approach to AI development
SSI has said it intends to "scale in peace" by protecting its development from short-term commercial pressures.
This approach sets it apart from other AI labs such as OpenAI, which pivoted toward commercial products following the surprise success of ChatGPT in 2022.
In a past interview with Reuters, Sutskever had said SSI was pursuing a new research direction but did not elaborate.