Nvidia makes 'substantial' investment in Sutskever's Safe Superintelligence

What's the deal? Nvidia has made a "substantial" investment in Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the artificial intelligence startup co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya SutskeverDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. While the two companies did not disclose a figure, the investment stretches into multiple billions, a source familiar with the deal told TechCrunch. The pair framed it as a long-term strategic partnership, pairing the capital with access to Nvidia's next-generation Vera Rubin platform — which SSI says will expand its compute by an order of magnitude.

Why it matters: The backing ties the world's dominant AI chipmaker to one of the most closely watched research startups, led by a figure central to OpenAI's early breakthroughs. An existing SSI investor, Nvidia said it deepened the relationship after gaining "rare access" into the company's closely guarded research. SSI has raised $7B to date and was last valued at $32B post-money.

The signal: Nvidia continues to extend its reach across the AI ecosystem, backing the firms building on top of its hardware — a strategy that deepens demand for its chips as the race toward advanced AI accelerates.

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