Ilya Sutskever's AI startup raises more than $1 billion

Safe Superintelligence, an AI startup with offices in Silicon Valley and Israel that announced itself in June, has raised over $1 billion in first-round funding.

Why it matters: The monster investment reflects the pedigree of the company's co-founders, who include former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, fellow OpenAI vet Daniel Levy and former Apple AI chief Daniel Gross.

Driving the news: The funding is all in cash rather than in cloud credits, even though lots of the money will surely be needed to purchase computing power in one form or another.

• Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, Sequoia Capital, and SV Angel, along with the NFDG partnership Gross runs with Nat Friedman.

What they're saying: "We have started the world's first straight-shot SSI lab, with one goal and one product: a safe superintelligence," the firm posted on X.

• "Our singular focus means no distraction by management overhead or product cycles, and our business model means safety, security, and progress are all insulated from short-term commercial pressures."

Between the lines: Sutskever was among the board members of OpenAI who voted to fire Sam Altman last year, though he later said he regretted his vote and supported Altman's return. His status at OpenAI remained in limbo for months before it was confirmed in May that he was officially leaving the company.

The bottom line: SSI's mission statement is a pretty blunt rebuke of OpenAI, even if many of its investors have stakes in both.

Yes, but: Promising to build superintelligent computing could take significant time and money. If the work leading up to that brings in no revenue, $1 billion may not last long, and the startup could be in frequent need of cash infusions.