Safe Superintelligence (SSI): What Sutskever Is Building

Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) is a private AI lab, led by CEO Ilya Sutskever, that says it is building a safe superintelligence. It had released no product as of July 2026, CTech reported. NVIDIA announced a partnership with SSI on July 27, 2026.

For what the word means, see our guide to what is superintelligence.

What did SSI announce with NVIDIA?

Safe Superintelligence Inc. and NVIDIA announced a long-term partnership on July 27, 2026, and NVIDIA made an investment in SSI. SSI says the deal will let it scale its compute, meaning the computing power AI systems need, by 10x. CTech reported that neither company disclosed the investment amount or SSI’s valuation.

NVIDIA’s release ties the increase to its investment and to SSI’s access to NVIDIA’s next-generation Vera Rubin platform. SSI’s updates page, dated July 26, 2026, says compute will grow 10x. NVIDIA’s release, dated a day later, calls it an order of magnitude, meaning about ten times. Both describe a future increase, not a finished one.

The two companies will also work together on improving NVIDIA’s current and future computing platforms. NVIDIA said it got a rare look at SSI’s tightly held research before the deal. TechCrunch reported that NVIDIA was already an SSI investor.

In NVIDIA’s July 27, 2026 release, Sutskever said: “We have research that is worthy of scaling up, and having access to a big NVIDIA computer will let us do so.”

CTech reported that Reuters put NVIDIA’s investment at $5 billion. Neither company gave that figure.

What is Safe Superintelligence building, and does it have a product?

SSI says on its website that it has “one goal and one product: a safe superintelligence.” CTech reported in July 2026 that SSI had not yet released a product or published research on its technology.

SSI calls itself the world’s first “straight-shot” lab, built around a single goal. It says its business model leaves safety, security and progress “insulated from short-term commercial pressures.”

SSI says it works on safety and capabilities (what AI can do) together and wants safety to stay ahead.

In a November 2025 interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel, Sutskever was asked how SSI would make money. He said the company is focused on research for now and the answer would become clear later.

Who founded Safe Superintelligence, and who is its CEO?

Ilya Sutskever, a former OpenAI chief scientist, founded SSI with Daniel Gross, a former Y Combinator partner, and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI engineer, TechCrunch reported. SSI’s updates page says Gross left on June 29, 2025, and that Sutskever is now CEO with Levy as president.

TechCrunch described Gross as the startup’s co-founder and CEO before he left. In a message to staff and investors on the updates page, Sutskever said Gross’s involvement had been winding down. He said he was now formally CEO and that the technical team continues to report to him. NVIDIA’s July 2026 release also says Sutskever and Levy lead the company.

The same message mentioned rumors that companies wanted to buy SSI. Sutskever said the lab was flattered but focused on seeing its work through, and he named no company. In July 2025, TechCrunch said Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg had reportedly attempted at one point to acquire all of SSI.

SSI describes itself as an American company with offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv. CTech reported that it employs only a few dozen people, including a research team in Tel Aviv.

Is Safe Superintelligence publicly traded?

No. Safe Superintelligence Inc. is privately held, is not listed on NASDAQ or NYSE and has no ticker symbol, according to the stock pages of Hiive and Clarity. Hiive says access to its private shares is limited to accredited investors.

Hiive says purchases may also face transfer limits, company approvals and SSI’s right of first refusal.

On September 4, 2024, SSI announced that it had raised $1 billion from NFDG, a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Sequoia, DST Global and SV Angel. TechCrunch, citing the Financial Times, reported in 2025 that SSI had raised an additional $2 billion at a $32 billion valuation. CTech reported that Greenoaks led that round and reportedly invested $500 million.

NVIDIA’s 2026 release names Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, Greenoaks and Sequoia Capital among SSI’s investors. CTech reported that SSI had raised around $7 billion before the NVIDIA deal.

What has Ilya Sutskever said about SSI’s next steps?

In the same November 2025 interview, Sutskever said two reasons could cause SSI to change its straight-shot plan. One is pragmatic: the time needed to reach powerful AI might turn out to be long. The other is the value of having the most powerful AI out in the world, affecting people.

He also described his view of the field. He said roughly 2012 to 2020 was an age of research and 2020 to 2025 an age of scaling. Scaling means increasing the resources used to build AI, such as computing power or training data. He added: “So it’s back to the age of research again, just with big computers.”

SSI has given no date for a product.