OpenAI Co-founder Sutskever's SSI in Speak with be Valued At $20 Bln,
SSI in speak to raise funding at $20 billion appraisal, up from $5 billion last September
SSI focuses on 'safe superintelligence' without any profits yet
Sutskever's track record and SSI's special approach pique financier interest
By Kenrick Cai, Krystal Hu and Anna Tong
Feb 7 (Reuters) - Safe Superintelligence, an expert system startup co-founded by OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever in 2015, remains in speak to raise financing at an appraisal of at least $20 billion, four sources told Reuters.
That would quadruple the business's $5 billion appraisal from its last financing round in September, when it raised $1 billion from 5 financiers consisting of Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and DST Global.
SSI's fundraising evaluates the capability of prominent AI ventures to continue to command premium appraisals following an industry-wide reappraisal prompted by Chinese start-up DeepSeek's unveiling of its low-cost AI last month.
SSI, which has not generated any profits, has said its mission is to develop "safe superintelligence" that is smarter than people while lined up with human interests.
The business's conversations with existing and new financiers are still in the early phases and terms might still change, the sources said this week, who asked for anonymity to talk about private matters. It was not clear how much cash SSI was seeking to raise.
SSI, which was founded in June with offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, did not respond to ask for comment. Sutskever's co-founders are Daniel Gross, who formerly led AI initiatives at Apple, and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher.
SECRETIVE STARTUP
Beyond the brief description of the company's objectives for safe AI, very little is learnt about the deceptive startup or its work.
SSI in speak to raise funding at $20 billion appraisal, up from $5 billion last September
SSI focuses on 'safe superintelligence' without any profits yet
Sutskever's track record and SSI's special approach pique financier interest
By Kenrick Cai, Krystal Hu and Anna Tong
Feb 7 (Reuters) - Safe Superintelligence, an expert system startup co-founded by OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever in 2015, remains in speak to raise financing at an appraisal of at least $20 billion, four sources told Reuters.
That would quadruple the business's $5 billion appraisal from its last financing round in September, when it raised $1 billion from 5 financiers consisting of Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and DST Global.
SSI's fundraising evaluates the capability of prominent AI ventures to continue to command premium appraisals following an industry-wide reappraisal prompted by Chinese start-up DeepSeek's unveiling of its low-cost AI last month.
SSI, which has not generated any profits, has said its mission is to develop "safe superintelligence" that is smarter than people while lined up with human interests.
The business's conversations with existing and new financiers are still in the early phases and terms might still change, the sources said this week, who asked for anonymity to talk about private matters. It was not clear how much cash SSI was seeking to raise.
SSI, which was founded in June with offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, did not respond to ask for comment. Sutskever's co-founders are Daniel Gross, who formerly led AI initiatives at Apple, and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher.
SECRETIVE STARTUP
Beyond the brief description of the company's objectives for safe AI, very little is learnt about the deceptive startup or its work.