Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence eyes $2B funding as Israeli team quietly grows
The secretive AI startup expands in Tel Aviv while securing a soaring $30B valuation.
Ilya Sutskever’s secretive artificial intelligence startup, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), is reportedly raising more than $2 billion at a valuation exceeding $30 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Last month, Bloomberg reported that San Francisco-based venture capital firm Greenoaks Capital Partners is leading the deal and plans to invest $500 million. Earlier reports had suggested that SSI was raising new funding at a $20 billion valuation, but that now appears to have underestimated the actual figure.
Sutskever, formerly OpenAI’s chief scientist and a key figure in its breakthroughs, left the company in May 2024. Shortly after, he announced the launch of Safe Superintelligence. The company initially raised $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation, largely based on Sutskever’s reputation as the scientific force behind OpenAI’s advancements. If the latest funding round materializes, SSI’s valuation will have increased sixfold within just a few months.
SSI has offices in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv, where it has been expanding, hiring engineers, and relocating to new office space. The company recently leased offices in Midtown Tel Aviv, a skyscraper in the city center, though it has not yet announced who will lead its operations there.
However, some details about its Israeli employees have begun to emerge. One of SSI's first Israeli hires is Dr. Yair Carmon, a senior lecturer in Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Computer Science. Carmon completed his PhD at Stanford University in 2020, following his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. According to his TAU page, his research focuses on machine learning, optimization, and statistics, with an emphasis on making algorithms more robust and reliable.
The company is currently believed to only have around 20 employees in total.
Sutskever, who immigrated to Israel as a child before moving to Canada for university, co-founded Safe Superintelligence with Daniel Levy and Daniel Gross. The startup’s initial funding round was led by Silicon Valley powerhouses Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, along with DST Global, the investment firm of billionaire Yuri Milner.
Despite its soaring valuation, the company has yet to unveil any technology or products. So far, it has only announced hiring efforts, including roles for its Tel Aviv development center. According to Sutskever, Safe Superintelligence aims to build AI models that surpass human intelligence while remaining aligned with human interests. This mission suggests potential philosophical differences with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, particularly regarding the risks and boundaries of advanced AI development.
