AI startup Safe Superintelligence (SSI) is now in the process of raising over $1 billion in new funding, thereby taking its valuation to nearly $30 billion. This development places SSI among the most valuable private AI companies in the world, despite the fact that it has yet to introduce a commercial product or generate revenue (unlike OpenAI or Anthropic, which have introduced widely used AI models).
Leading the latest infusion of capital is Greenoaks Capital Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm which has backed several tech companies, including Scale AI and Databricks Inc. Greenoaks is reportedly set to contribute $500 million to this round, according to reports that state sources familiar with the matter. The specifics of the deal are yet to be finalized.
Prior to this latest funding round, SSI had already raised over $1 billion in September 2024, which placed its valuation at $5 billion. The company’s initial backers included prominent venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global Ltd., SV Angel, and Northern Four Dragon Gate Capital. The valuation exceeds SSI’s prior goal of seeking a valuation of at least $20 billion, since investor interest appears to have driven the valuation even higher.
It is to be expected, though, since recent years have seen a series of massive investments in AI startups. OpenAI’s ChatGPT had kicked off the AI race, and since then, the industry has seen a surge in capital flowing into AI firms, with several major players securing multi-billion-dollar deals in recent months. For instance, last month, AI startup Anthropic received $1 billion in funding from Big Tech behemoth Google.
SSI was established in June 2024, just one month after Ilya Sutskever departed from OpenAI, the organization he co-founded and where he served as Chief Scientist. His exit followed internal conflicts related to AI safety, including his involvement in the temporary ousting of Sam Altman as OpenAI’s CEO in November 2023. He was joined by Daniel Gross, a venture capitalist and former AI lead at iPhone-maker Apple, and Daniel Levy, a researcher who previously worked at OpenAI. The company maintains offices in Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv (which is a recent expansion) and operates with a focus on developing safe AI.
Unlike other AI firms, Safe Superintelligence does not aim to generate revenue or roll out AI products until it achieves its primary objective. Last year, Sutskever had revealed that SSI is “special in that its first product will be the safe superintelligence, and it will not do anything else up until then. 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.”
