OpenAI Co-Founder Secures $1 Billion to Build "Safe" AI at New Startup

Ilya Sutskever, a co-founder of AI powerhouse OpenAI, has secured a staggering $1 billion in funding for his new venture focused on developing what he calls "safe" artificial intelligence. The startup, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), announced the funding round in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday.

The list of backers includes prominent venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, and SV Angel. Notably, NFDG, a venture capital partnership between Nat Friedman (former CEO of Github) and SSI co-founder Daniel Gross, also participated in the round.

Sutskever, who served as OpenAI's chief scientist, departed the company in May following a period of internal turmoil that saw the brief ousting of CEO Sam Altman – a move Sutskever later said he regretted.

Founded in June, SSI has quickly become a magnet for investors eager to capitalize on the booming AI industry while addressing growing concerns about the potential risks posed by increasingly powerful AI models.

"Building safe superintelligence is the most important technical problem of our time," SSI states on its website, underscoring the company's mission.