What you need to know:
- The OpenAI co-founder’s AI safety startup has raised $1B, reflecting the industry divide on AI risks — and the rush to back the next tech giant.
- SSI’s deal marks the 9th $1B+ AI equity round of the year, following record levels of AI investment in Q2’24.
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s AI startup Safe Superintelligence (SSI) recently announced it had raised $1B at a $5B valuation.
SSI has just 10 employees and was only founded in June 2024, with plans to develop safety-focused AI systems.
Investors in the round included Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Sequoia Capital, DST Global, SV Angel, and NFDG (Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross).
Key takeaways:
- Unprecedented number of $1B+ bets in AI: SSI’s deal is the 9th $1B+ AI equity round this year, partly driven by the cost of AI talent and model development driving up deal sizes. However, given their willingness to write such big checks, investors appear to be confident that a new tech giant will emerge from the space.
- VCs are hedging their bets: Both a16z and Sequoia have invested in a number of leading model developers, including open-source players xAI and Mistral AI. Big tech investors are similarly hedging their bets by investing in many of the top genAI companies.
- The AI safety divide: Sutskever was OpenAI’s chief scientist and focused on AI safety research, leading its former Superalignment team. His departure and plans for SSI reflect the broader debate — and divide in the industry — surrounding AI’s biggest risks and rapid speed of development.
AI funding trends
AI funding hit $23.2B in Q2’24 — the highest quarterly level on record.
Massive rounds to a handful of startups, including Elon Musk’s xAI, were key drivers behind the jump.
So far in 2024, there have been 9 $1B+ AI equity rounds in 2024:
- xAI — $6B Series B (May 2024)
- Anthropic — $2.75B Series D (March 2024)
- G42 — $1.5B corporate minority (April 2024)
- Anduril — $1.5B Series F (August 2024)
- CoreWeave — $1.1B Series C (May 2024)
- Wayve — $1.05B Series C (May 2024)
- Moonshot AI — $1B Series B (February 2024)
- Scale — $1B Series B (May 2024)
- Safe Superintelligence — $1B Series A (September 2024)
