OpenAI co-founder Sutskever's SSI in talks to be valued at $20 billion: Report

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever’s AI startup SSI is in talks to raise more funding at a valuation of $20 billion.

Safe Superintelligence, an artificial intelligence startup co-founded by OpenAI's former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever last year, is in talks to raise funding at a valuation of at least $20 billion, four sources told Reuters.

That would quadruple the company's $5 billion valuation from its last funding round in September, when it raised $1 billion from five investors including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and DST Global.

SSI's fundraising tests the ability of high-profile AI ventures to continue to command premium valuations following an industry-wide reappraisal prompted by Chinese startup DeepSeek's unveiling of its low-cost AI last month.

SSI, which has not generated any revenue, has said its mission is to develop "safe superintelligence" that is smarter than humans while aligned with human interests.

The company's conversations with existing and new investors are still in the early stages and terms could still change, the sources said this week, who requested anonymity to discuss private matters. It was not clear how much money SSI was seeking to raise.

SSI, which was founded in June with offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv, did not respond to requests for comment. Sutskever's co-founders are Daniel Gross, who previously led AI initiatives at Apple, and Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher.

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