OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s AI startup Safe Superintelligence raises $2 billion at $32 billion valuation

Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the secretive AI venture founded by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, has pulled in another $2 billion at a $32 billion valuation, per the Financial Times.

This update follows a Wall Street Journal report last month that SSI was aiming for the same funding figure, though at a slightly lower $30 billion cap. The company already raised $1 billion last year and was rumored to be preparing another $1 billion round. That second round appears to have landed, led by Greenoaks, though SSI isn’t saying much about it publicly.

The funding news follows reports that former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is also seeking to raise $2 billion for her stealth AI startup, at a massive $10 billion valuation.

Sutskever, who left OpenAI in May 2024, introduced SSI with a mission as focused as it is ambitious: “We will pursue safe superintelligence with a singular focus on one goal and one product.” The product hasn’t launched. In fact, SSI hasn’t released anything yet—not even a beta. But the promise of building AI systems smarter than humans, without going off the rails, has been more than enough to get investors on board.

The company kicked things off with a $1 billion raise at a $5 billion valuation, thanks in large part to Sutskever’s reputation as one of the minds behind OpenAI’s rise. Now, if this latest deal is fully closed, SSI’s value has jumped 6x in just a few months. All that—and no product yet.

Why it Matters

Despite not having a product on the table, SSI’s valuation has jumped sixfold since September 2024. The spike—alongside news of Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines eyeing a $2 billion raise—signals growing investor confidence in AI startups led by high-profile researchers, particularly those with ties to OpenAI.

Its website is still just a mission statement.

SSI Heavyweight AI Team

SSI is setting up shop in both Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv and recently signed a lease in Midtown Tel Aviv. No word yet on who will run the local operation, but the company did bring on Dr. Yair Carmon, a well-regarded machine learning researcher from Tel Aviv University. Carmon earned his PhD at Stanford and has a solid track record in academic circles.

Backers of the first funding round include heavyweights like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and DST Global, Yuri Milner’s investment outfit.

So far, SSI’s public presence has focused more on hiring than product. Most of the action seems to be happening behind closed doors. That fits with Sutskever’s stated goal of “scaling in peace”—a subtle jab at the high-pressure commercial push seen in places like OpenAI, which shifted its structure to accommodate massive monetization following the ChatGPT boom.

OpenAI made nearly $4 billion in revenue last year and expects to hit $11.6 billion this year. SSI, by contrast, hasn’t made a dollar—and seems fine with that for now.

SSI: New and Totally Different Direction For Advancing AI

Sutskever isn’t new to this game. At OpenAI, he was an early believer in scaling AI through compute and massive datasets. That approach helped spark ChatGPT’s breakout success. But as clean, large-scale training data became harder to come by, he started focusing more on the inference stage—how models actually produce output. That shift helped push OpenAI’s advancements in reasoning and logic.

Now with SSI, he appears to be building on those insights, but with a different structure and philosophy.

The startup’s leadership team includes ex-Apple AI chief Daniel Gross and former OpenAI researcher Daniel Levy. But beyond the big names, the company is keeping its methodology and timeline close to the chest. Sutskever once called SSI’s approach “a new mountain to climb,” but offered no map for how they’ll get to the top.

His departure from OpenAI wasn’t exactly smooth. He played a role in removing Sam Altman last year, only to regret it later. “I never intended to harm OpenAI,” he said on X. “I love everything we’ve built together, and I will do everything I can to reunite the company.”

That reunion looks unlikely.

The AI Race Isn’t Slowing Down

While SSI charts its own course, the broader AI space is still on fire. OpenAI is reportedly in talks to double its valuation to $300 billion. Anthropic is chasing $60 billion. And over in China, DeepSeek just launched open-source models that rival U.S. counterparts at a fraction of the cost. That move alone shaved $600 billion off Nvidia’s market cap earlier this year.

So far, none of that seems to be cooling investor appetite. Big tech firms are still pouring billions into AI, judging by the latest earnings calls.

And even if SSI hasn’t revealed much, it’s clear the startup is betting on depth over speed—building something it hopes won’t just scale, but stay aligned with human intent.

For now, all eyes are on what exactly that one product will be.