Ilya Sutskever Takes Helm at Safe Superintelligence Amid AI Talent War

Ilya Sutskever will lead Safe Superintelligence following his CEO's exit | TechCrunch

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever says he is stepping into the CEO role at Safe Superintelligence, the AI startup he launched in 2024. In a post on X , Sutskever confirmed Thursday that Daniel Gross, the startup's co-founder and CEO, departed the company as of June 29." Safe Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Levy is becoming president of the startup, according to Sutskever. The announcement follows weeks of reporting that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in advanced talks to hire Gross, as well as his longtime investing partner, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. At one point, Zuckerberg reportedly attempted to acquired all of Safe Superintelligence, a startup most recently valued at $32 billion. Sutskever addressed those reports as well. "You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through," said Sutskever. "We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do. Together we will keep building safe superintelligence." That's quite a confident statement from Sutskever, but he may need to project as much to assure investors and talent that his startup is still on track. Naturally, Gross' departure may raise questions around the startup. If Safe Superintelligence was close to their goal -- surely a groundbreaking technology, as it's described -- why would its co-founder leave to start something new, seemingly at Meta? Notably, Safe Superintelligence describes themselves as the world's "first straight-shot SSI lab," meaning the company has no other products or ambitions outside of developing, well, safe superintelligence. That's the name, that's the product, that's their whole thing. Sutskever started Safe Superintelligence shortly after leaving OpenAI, where he played a role in the brief ousting of CEO Sam Altman. Meanwhile, it seems likely that Meta Superintelligence Labs will develop technology that powers lots of the company's products. In Zuckerberg's memo announcing the new unit, he referenced Meta's expertise in building and growing products that reach billions of people, and cited the early wins Meta has had in AI wearables. That means Gross could who previous led AI teams at Apple after the iPhone maker acquired his startup, could have a more familiar role at Meta, should he join. Zuckerberg has also nabbed some top researchers from OpenAI and Google DeepMind to fill out his new AI team. Nevertheless, Sutskever may have his hands full as Safe Superintelligence's CEO. While he's held previous high-ranking positions, such as OpenAI's chief scientist, the CEO role may come with new challenges -- such as raising new capital from investors and recruiting top talent. Sutskever notes in his post that he'll continue to oversee Safe Superintelligence's technical team.

Meta Hires Researcher Gross to Join New AI Superintelligence Lab

Daniel Gross, the former chief executive officer and co-founder of artificial intelligence startup Safe Superintelligence Inc., is joining Meta Platforms Inc.'s new superintelligence lab focused on AI. Gross will work on AI products for the superintelligence group, according to his spokesperson, Lulu Meservey. Meta just restructured its AI unit and has gone on a major hiring spree to recruit industry experts to develop AI technology that will match or exceed human-level competency, known as superintelligence.

Sutskever to lead Safe Superintelligence after Meta poaches CEO Gross in AI talent war

July 3 (Reuters) - Ilya Sutskever has taken over the reins of Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the artificial intelligence startup he launched last year, after losing CEO Daniel Gross to an intensifying talent war in the industry. Gross has joined Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab to lead its AI products division, sources told Reuters. The development comes as tech giants such as Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of artificial intelligence. Meta had also attempted to recruit Ilya Sutskever and acquire SSI, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. "You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through," Sutskever said in a post, opens new tab on X. SSI raised $1 billion in cash last year to build advanced AI systems designed to safely exceed human intelligence. Gross did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has launched a new division, Meta Superintelligence Labs, to unify the company's AI efforts, following setbacks with its Llama 4 model and key staff departures. The unit will be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman, after Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale and ramped up efforts to recruit top AI talent. Gross and Friedman are known to be close, having co-founded the venture capital firm NFDG -- named after their initials. The firm has backed high-profile startups including Safe Superintelligence, Perplexity and Figma. Apple acquired Gross's startup, Cue, in 2013 for its predictive search and AI technology, after which Gross joined the iPhone maker as a director, overseeing machine learning and artificial intelligence. Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial Intelligence Krystal Hu Thomson Reuters Krystal reports on venture capital and startups for Reuters. She covers Silicon Valley and beyond through the lens of money and characters, with a focus on growth-stage startups, tech investments and AI. She has previously covered M&A for Reuters, breaking stories on Trump's SPAC and Elon Musk's Twitter financing. Previously, she reported on Amazon for Yahoo Finance, and her investigation of the company's retail practice was cited by lawmakers in Congress. Krystal started a career in journalism by writing about tech and politics in China. She has a master's degree from New York University, and enjoys a scoop of Matcha ice cream as much as getting a scoop at work.

Ilya Sutskever becomes CEO of Safe Superintelligence after Meta poached Daniel Gross

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever said he will assume the CEO role at Safe Superintelligence, the artificial intelligence startup he launched last year. Sutskever's announcement on Thursday comes after Meta poached Daniel Gross, a longtime entrepreneur and AI investor who had been CEO of Safe Superintelligence. In a post on X, Sutskever said Gross' time at the company has been "winding down," and that his last day was June 29. Safe Superintelligence co-founder Daniel Levy will now serve as president, and the company's technical team will continue to report to Sutskever, he said. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been on a multibillion-dollar AI hiring spree, highlighted by a $14 billion investment in Scale AI that brought the startup's founder Alexandr Wang and a small group of his lead engineers to Meta. Zuckerberg announced a new organization on Monday called Meta Superintelligence Labs that's made up of top AI researchers and engineers. However, Gross' name was not listed among the new hires mentioned by Zuckerberg. Gross did not respond to CNBC's request for comment. During Zuckerberg's AI hiring blitz, Meta tried to acquire Safe Superintelligence, but Sutskever rebuffed those efforts, CNBC previously reported. Safe Superintelligence was reportedly valued at $32 billion in a fundraising round in April. Sutskever confirmed his plans on Thursday to keep running the company as an independent organization. "⁠You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through," Sutskever wrote. "We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do. Together we will keep building safe superintelligence." Sutskever previously served as OpenAI's chief scientist and co-led the company's Superalignment team with Jan Leike, who left to join rival AI firm Anthropic.

Ilya Sutskever Takes Over as CEO of Safe Superintelligence After Daniel Gross's Exit | AIM

"You might have heard rumours of companies looking to acquire us," he said. "We are flattered by their attention, but are focused on seeing our work through." Ilya Sutskever has officially taken over as CEO of Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI), following the departure of Daniel Gross from the company. Daniel Levy will serve as President, while the technical team continues to report to Sutskever. "As you know, Daniel Gross's time with us has been winding down, and as of June 29 he is officially no longer a part of SSI," Sutskever shared in a message to the company's team and investors. "We are grateful for his early contributions to the company and wish him well in his next endeavour." Previously, it was reported that Meta is in advanced talks to hire Gross to help lead its artificial intelligence efforts. SSI, which Sutskever launched in June last year alongside Gross and Levy after leaving OpenAI, is focused on building safe superintelligence. Despite rumours of possible acquisition talks, Sutskever confirmed that the company plans to remain independent. "You might have heard rumours of companies looking to acquire us," he said. "We are flattered by their attention, but are focused on seeing our work through." Meta reportedly made an acquisition offer for Safe Superintelligence (SSI), which was valued at around $32 billion during its recent fundraising. The offer was declined. Sutskever added, "We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do. Together we will keep building safe superintelligence." Safe Superintelligence was launched with the stated goal of prioritising safety and speed equally while developing advanced AI systems.

Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross joins Meta's new AI lab - SiliconANGLE

Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross joins Meta's new AI lab Meta Platforms Inc. has hired prominent artificial intelligence executive Daniel Gross and may reportedly buy a stake in his venture capital firm. Until last week, Gross (pictured) was the Chief Executive Officer of Safe Superintelligence Inc., a well-funded AI startup. He co-founded the company last year with former OpenAI researchers Ilya Sutskever and Daniel Levy. Sutskever revealed Gross' departure in a post on X today. Rumors of Meta's intent to hire Gross first emerged in mid-June. It's believed that the Facebook parent's original plan was to buy SSI, which reportedly received a $32 billion valuation in April. Meta shifted its focus to hiring Gross after Sutskever rebuffed the takeover offer. Sutskever, OpenAI's former chief scientist, has succeeded Gross as the CEO of SSI. He will continue to oversee the company's technical teams. SSI is working on superintelligence, a term for a hypothetical future variety of AI that can perform many tasks better than humans. "You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us," Sutskever wrote on X. "We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through." Although Meta's reported attempt to buy SSI was unsuccessful, it could still obtain an indirect stake in the startup. Gross operates a venture capital firm called NFDG together with Nat Friedman, the former CEO of Microsoft Corp.'s GitHub unit. NFDG has a stake in SSI. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Meta has offered to buy out some of the limited partners in NFDG. The Facebook parent is reportedly seeking to purchase up to 49% of the fund's holdings. According to the Journal, Meta wouldn't receive access to information from NFDG portfolio companies such as SSI if the deal goes through. Gross will join Meta's newly launched Meta Superintelligence Labs, or MSL, unit, which is working to develop highly advanced AI models similarly to SSI. Friedman co-leads the unit together with former Scale AI CEO Inc. Alexander Wang. The latter executive and several former Scale AI employees joined MSL last month after Meta parent invested $14.3 billion in the startup. The Facebook parent has also recruited several high-profile OpenAI researchers to the unit. Recent reports indicate that the company is offering AI researchers upwards of $100 million to join MSL. The unit will lead Meta's AI research initiatives, the development of its Llama language model series and the associated commercialization initiatives.

AI talent war heats up as Meta poaches Gross for MSL

As Meta seeks to compete with the likes of Google and OpenAI, it has been on a recruitment spree for AI leaders for its new Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has been on somewhat of a spending spree when it comes to top AI talent in recent months and on Monday it became clear why. In an internal Meta memo seen by CNBC, Zuckerberg laid out its plans for a new division - the Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), and flagged that the new division would be led by recent recruits Scale AI ex-CEO Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. "As the pace of AI progress accelerates, developing superintelligence is coming into sight," Zuckerberg said in the memo. "I believe this will be the beginning of a new era for humanity, and I am fully committed to doing what it takes for Meta to lead the way. Today I want to share some details about how we're organising our AI efforts to build towards our vision: personal superintelligence for everyone." "We're going to call our overall organization Meta Superintelligence Labs). This includes all of our foundations, product, and FAIR teams, as well as a new lab focused on developing the next generation of our models." Now, as had been widely mooted, he has added Daniel Gross to his 'super team'. Gross was CEO and co-founder of Safe Superintelligence (SSI) with Ilya Sutskever, the latter a former chief scientist at OpenAI. CNBC had reported that Meta initially tried to acquire the company but, having been rebuffed, it now planned to pursue its CEO Gross. Last night Gross reposted a post from Sutskever on X (formerly Twitter) confirming that "Daniel Gross's time with us has been winding down, and as of June 29 he is officially no longer a part of SSI". In a recent Uncapped podcast interview with his brother, OpenAI's Sam Altman claimed Meta had been trying to poach some of his employees with signing bonuses that went as high as $100m. "So far none of our best people have decided to take them up on that," Altman said on the Uncapped podcast that is hosted by his brother Jack Altman, and added a little dig. "Their current AI efforts have not worked as well as they have hoped and I respect being aggressive and continuing to try new things." Meta is widely seen as having fallen well behind its AI competitors, but as he mops up some of Silicon Valley's leading AI talent, it is clear that Zuckerberg has no intention of letting this continue. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Meta Poaches CEO of Ilya Sutskever's Startup in AI Talent War

Meta had also attempted to recruit Sutskever and acquire SSI Ilya Sutskever has taken over the reins of Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the artificial intelligence startup he launched last year, after losing CEO Daniel Gross to an intensifying talent war in the industry. Gross has joined Meta Platforms to lead its AI products division, sources told Reuters. The development comes as tech giants such as Meta Platforms aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of artificial intelligence. Meta had also attempted to recruit Sutskever and acquire SSI, which was most recently valued at $32 billion (roughly Rs. 2,73,402 crore), sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. "You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through," Sutskever said in a post on X. SSI raised $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,543 crore) in cash last year to build advanced AI systems designed to safely exceed human intelligence. Sutskever has previously served as OpenAI's chief scientist. He left the ChatGPT maker, which he co‑founded, after his involvement in Sam Altman's dramatic firing and rehiring in November 2023. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has launched a new division, Meta Superintelligence Labs, to unify the company's AI efforts, following setbacks with its Llama 4 model and key staff departures. The unit will be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman, after Meta invested $14.3 billion (roughly Rs. 1,22,178 crore) in Scale and ramped up efforts to recruit top AI talent. Gross and Friedman are known to be close, having co-founded the venture capital firm NFDG -- named after their initials. The firm has backed high-profile startups including Safe Superintelligence, Perplexity and Figma. Meta has offered to buy a minority stake in NFDG's funds from limited partners through a tender offer, the sources told Reuters. The Facebook owner did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while NFDG could not be reached. Apple acquired Gross's startup, Cue, in 2013 for its predictive search and AI technology, after which Gross joined the iPhone maker as a director, overseeing machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Ilya Sutskever Will Lead Safe Superintelligence After Meta Poaches His CEO

Ilya Sutskever steps into the CEO role at Safe Superintelligence as Daniel Gross departs for Meta's new A.I. team. Ilya Sutskever, who co-founded Safe Superintelligence (SSI) last year, is stepping into the CEO role after the startup's former leader, Daniel Gross, left for Meta amid an aggressive recruitment campaign. Both SSI and Meta's newly formed superintelligence team are racing to develop advanced AI systems with capabilities that surpass those of humans. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters Gross officially exited SSI on June 29, confirmed Sutskever last week in a message to staffers and investors. "We are grateful for his early contributions to the company and wish him well in his next endeavor," Sutskever said. Gross, for his part, expressed optimism about the company's trajectory. SSI was most recently valued at a staggering $32 billion in April. "The company's future is very bright, and I expect miracles to follow," he said in a post on X. His move to Meta comes as the Mark Zuckerberg-led company revamps its A.I. strategy through a major hiring spree, reportedly offering some A.I. researchers signing bonuses of up to $100 million. Zuckerberg recently unveiled its new unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), which will be co-led by Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang and ex-Github CEO Nat Friedman. The team includes talent recruited from OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic. Friedman, also Gross's investment partner at the venture capital firm NFDG, has previously backed SSI. Gross co-founded SSI with Sutskever and Daniel Levy, an OpenAI alum. In his new role at Meta, Gross will reportedly be working on A.I. products for MSL. Zuckerberg attempted to acquire Safe Superintelligence Gross wasn't Meta's first choice. Zuckerberg initially attempted to acquire SSI outright and tried -- and failed -- to recruit Sutskever, according to CNBC. After being rebuffed, he pivoted to hiring Gross and Friedman instead. Sutskever acknowledged these overtures in his recent message. "You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us," he said. "We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through." A widely respected A.I. researcher, Sutskever co-developed the landmark neural network AlexNet in 2012 and later held roles at Google and OpenAI. As OpenAI's chief scientist, he was a central figure in the failed attempt to oust CEO Sam Altman in 2023, and he left the company the following year to co-found SSI. Unlike most A.I. firms, SSI doesn't have a consumer product. Its sole focus is safely achieving superintelligence. The startup places a special emphasis on secrecy. It discourages employees from mentioning SSI on LinkedIn, and job candidates are reportedly asked to place their phones in electromagnetic wave-blocking cages before entering the office. Despite Gross's departure, Sutskever sought to reassure employees that the mission remains intact. "We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do. Together we will keep building safe superintelligence," he said.

Sutskever to lead Safe Superintelligence after Meta poaches CEO Gross in AI talent war - The Economic Times

The development comes as tech giants such as Meta Platforms aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of artificial intelligence.Ilya Sutskever has taken over the reins of Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the artificial intelligence startup he launched last year, after losing CEO Daniel Gross to an intensifying talent war in the industry. Gross has joined Meta Platforms to lead its AI products division, sources told Reuters. The development comes as tech giants such as Meta Platforms aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of artificial intelligence. Meta had also attempted to recruit Ilya Sutskever and acquire SSI, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. "You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through," Sutskever said in a post on X. SSI raised $1 billion in cash last year to build advanced AI systems designed to safely exceed human intelligence. Gross did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has launched a new division, Meta Superintelligence Labs, to unify the company's AI efforts, following setbacks with its Llama 4 model and key staff departures. The unit will be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman, after Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale and ramped up efforts to recruit top AI talent. Gross and Friedman are known to be close, having cofounded the venture capital firm NFDG - named after their initials. The firm has backed high-profile startups including Safe Superintelligence, Perplexity and Figma. Apple acquired Gross's startup, Cue, in 2013 for its predictive search and AI technology, after which Gross joined the iPhone maker as a director, overseeing machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Meta's AI talent heist: Safe Superintelligence CEO and top OpenAI researchers jump ship as talent war intensifies - The Economic Times

Amidst the war for talent in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, Meta has snared another employee. This time it's Daniel Gross, CEO of Safe Superintelligence (SSI). SSI was launched last year by OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever. It appears Meta is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to talent even remotely connected to OpenAI. Gross has joined Meta Platforms to lead its AI products division, according to Reuters. This development comes as tech giants have been throwing money to secure top talent and make high-profile acquisitions to stay ahead in the AI game. Prior to this, CNBC had reported that the Mark Zuckerberg-led company had tried to recruit Sutskever and acquire SSI. But to the disappointment of the tech giant, Sutskever refused to give in. In his post about Gross's departure from the company, Sutskever also addressed the reports: "⁠You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through." "We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do. Together we will keep building safe superintelligence," he added. This talent poaching follows a previous instance reported a few days ago, when Meta hired four artificial intelligence researchers from OpenAI, which itself followed the recruitment of another group of researchers from OpenAI's Zurich office. Back then, OpenAI's chief research officer, Mark Chen, told employees, "I feel a visceral feeling right now, as if someone has broken into our home and stolen something," Before the wave of departures hit, OpenAI's CEO had already spoken out, revealing that Zuckerberg was dangling bonuses of up to $100 million to lure his talent away. "At least, so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that," Altman had said. Those words didn't age well, as the subsequent talent exodus has proved otherwise.

Sutskever to lead Safe Superintelligence after Meta poaches CEO Gross in AI talent war

(Reuters) -Ilya Sutskever has taken over the reins of Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the artificial intelligence startup he launched last year, after losing CEO Daniel Gross to an intensifying talent war in the industry. Gross has joined Meta Platforms to lead its AI products division, sources told Reuters. The development comes as tech giants such as Meta Platforms aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of artificial intelligence. Meta had also attempted to recruit Ilya Sutskever and acquire SSI, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. "You might have heard rumors of companies looking to acquire us. We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through," Sutskever said in a post on X. SSI raised $1 billion in cash last year to build advanced AI systems designed to safely exceed human intelligence. Gross did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has launched a new division, Meta Superintelligence Labs, to unify the company's AI efforts, following setbacks with its Llama 4 model and key staff departures. The unit will be led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and ex-GitHub chief Nat Friedman, after Meta invested $14.3 billion in Scale and ramped up efforts to recruit top AI talent. Gross and Friedman are known to be close, having co-founded the venture capital firm NFDG -- named after their initials. The firm has backed high-profile startups including Safe Superintelligence, Perplexity and Figma. Apple acquired Gross's startup, Cue, in 2013 for its predictive search and AI technology, after which Gross joined the iPhone maker as a director, overseeing machine learning and artificial intelligence. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Krystal Hu in New York; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)