'OpenAI Original Member' Sutskever Raises $1 Billion for AI Startup

SSI (Safe Superintelligence) Established for Just Over 2 Months
"Pure Research for Building Safe Superintelligence"

Illya Sutskever, co-founder of OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has raised $1 billion (approximately 1.33 trillion KRW) in funding for his AI startup.

On the 4th (local time), Sutskever posted on X (formerly Twitter), "SSI (Safe Superintelligence) is creating a shortcut to safe superintelligence," and announced, "We have secured $1 billion from prominent U.S. venture capital firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and SV Angel."

Three co-founders of SSI (Safe Superintelligence). From the left, Daniel Gross, Ilya Sutskever, Daniel Levy
[Photo by Yonhap News]

According to major foreign media, sources reported that with this funding, SSI's valuation reached $5 billion. This comes just over two months after Sutskever announced the establishment of the AI startup in June. Currently, SSI has about 10 employees and plans to use the investment to secure computing power and hire talent.

Daniel Gross, CEO of SSI, said in an interview, "It is important to partner with investors who understand, respect, and support our mission," adding, "Our mission is to create a direct path toward safe superintelligence, and above all, to invest years in research and development before bringing products to market."

As CEO Gross stated, SSI started as a pure research organization aiming to build safe and powerful AI systems. Sutskever, who led the effort to oust Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, left the company in May after the coup attempt failed and then founded SSI. Given his disagreements with Altman over the speed of AI development and safety issues at OpenAI, he emphasized that his new company "focuses on achieving both safety and functionality, pursuing a business model free from short-term commercial pressures."

Bloomberg, which conducted an exclusive interview with Sutskever, evaluated, "His goal is to create safe and powerful AI systems within a pure research organization that has no intention of selling products or services in the short term," and added, "He aims to continue working without many of the distractions faced by competitors like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic." The team Sutskever was part of at OpenAI was an organization researching how to control future superintelligent AI so that it behaves in ways useful and harmless to humans.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.