OpenAI co-founder Sutskever's startup to raise funds at $30 bn valuation

By Kate Clark

 

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever is raising more than $1 billion for his startup at a valuation of over $30 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter — vaulting the nascent venture into the ranks of the world’s most valuable private technology companies. 

Greenoaks Capital Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, is leading the deal for the startup, Safe Superintelligence, and plans to invest $500 million, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. Greenoaks is also an investor in AI companies Scale AI and Databricks Inc. 

 

The round marks a significant valuation jump from the $5 billion that Sutskever’s company was worth before, according to Reuters, which earlier reported some details of the new funding. The financing talks are ongoing and the details could still change.

 

The company previously raised money from investors including Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Greenoaks declined to comment. Representatives for Sutskever didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Sutskever, a researcher who was instrumental in developing OpenAI’s technology and served as its Chief Scientist, left the company in May. One month later, he co-founded Safe Superintelligence, or SSI, with Daniel Gross, a venture capitalist who previously worked on AI efforts at Apple Inc., as well as Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher. 

 

SSI focuses on developing safe AI systems. It isn’t generating revenue yet and doesn’t intend to sell AI products in the near future.

 

“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 told Bloomberg in June. “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.”

 

Sutskever was a key figure in the ouster of OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman in 2023 before he helped Altman return.