Safe Superintelligence, an artificial intelligence research lab co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, has raised US$1 billion in funding to build a safe and powerful AI system.
Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and SV Angel contributed to the funding round, Safe Superintelligence announced on Wednesday. NFDG, the venture capital firm of Nat Friedman and Safe Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Gross, also invested.
Sutskever, a famed researcher, was instrumental in developing OpenAI’s technology. He also played a key role in the brief ouster of the start-up’s CEO, Sam Altman, late last year before changing course and pushing for his return.
Sutskever introduced Safe Superintelligence in June, shortly after leaving OpenAI. The venture aims to develop a powerful AI system within a pure research organisation that has no intention of selling AI products or services in the near term. Its approach differentiates Safe Superintelligence from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, which offer AI products for consumers and businesses.
“This company is special in that its first product will be the safe superintelligence, and it will not do anything else up until then,” Sutskever previously said. “It will be fully insulated from the outside pressures of having to deal with a large and complicated product and having to be stuck in a competitive rat race.”
