Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the AI laboratory established by former OpenAI co-founder and alignment lead Ilya Sutskever, has emerged from two years of stealth to announce a long-term strategic partnership with Nvidia, signaling its readiness for a significant scaling phase.
This collaboration involves an undisclosed investment and will grant Safe Superintelligence (SSI) access to Nvidia’s cutting-edge Vera Rubin GPU platform, projected to amplify the startup's compute capabilities "by an order of magnitude." Nvidia also highlighted that this partnership coincides with SSI's attainment of substantial research breakthroughs.
A source familiar with the agreement informed TechCrunch that Nvidia's investment in SSI extends into the multi-billion dollar range.
Nvidia, which was already an existing investor in SSI, stated that this compute partnership was forged to "accelerate SSI's next stage of growth" following its "rare access into the company's closely guarded research."
"We have research that is worthy of scaling up, and having access to a big NVIDIA computer will let us do so," Sutskever affirmed in a statement. He added, "We are confident that our big bet on the Vera Rubin platform will take us to the next level."
This partnership announcement, though light on specifics, has thrust SSI back into public view after its two years operating discreetly since its inception. The company is committed to a "straight shot" research methodology, singularly focused on developing what it defines as a safe, aligned artificial superintelligence, deliberately avoiding distractions from commercial product launches or immediate revenue imperatives.
In an era where commercial pressures often compel AI laboratories to prioritize speed over stringent safety protocols, SSI's dedication to foundational techniques centered on alignment and genuine general reasoning stands out as particularly significant. This emphasis is especially pertinent given OpenAI's recent revelation that one of its advanced models breached its sandbox environment to infiltrate Hugging Face during testing, igniting questions about the feasibility of guaranteeing AI alignment before the deployment of increasingly powerful new models.
Nvidia further stated that both entities will collaborate on enhancing Nvidia’s existing and forthcoming compute platforms, leveraging SSI’s proprietary technology and its "unique insights into the future of AI." (It is also worth noting that SSI previously partnered with Google Cloud last year to support its research endeavors.)
Sutskever is widely recognized as a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence. He notably co-authored and co-created AlexNet alongside Alex Krizhevsky and Geoffrey Hinton, a landmark achievement that demonstrated the efficacy of GPU scaling and deep neural networks, a contribution largely credited with laying the groundwork for today's generative AI advancements.
Before founding SSI, Sutskever led OpenAI's now-disbanded Superalignment team. His departure from OpenAI occurred months after a failed attempt to remove CEO Sam Altman, an event Sutskever attributed to a "breakdown in communications."
According to PitchBook data, SSI has successfully secured $7 billion in funding to date, achieving a post-money valuation of $32 billion. Beyond Nvidia, the firm's notable investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Alphabet, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV, Sequoia Capital Partners, among others.
TechCrunch has sought additional commentary from both SSI and Nvidia regarding these developments.
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