Alphabet and Nvidia have recently invested in Safe Superintelligence (SSI), an AI startup founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. This investment underscores the growing interest in AI safety and the strategic importance of securing access to cutting-edge AI development.

SSI, founded in June 2024, focuses on developing advanced AI systems with a strong emphasis on safety. The company, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel, has quickly gained recognition as a prominent player in the AI landscape. Sutskever's reputation for predicting significant advancements in AI has further elevated SSI's profile, making it a highly sought-after startup.

The investment from Alphabet and Nvidia is reportedly part of a funding round led by Greenoaks, which values SSI at approximately $32 billion. While the exact terms of Alphabet's and Nvidia's investments remain undisclosed, their participation signals a strong commitment to supporting AI research and development. The funding illustrates renewed interest from the big tech and infrastructure providers in making strategic investments in the startups developing cutting-edge AI that requires massive amounts of computing power.

Alphabet's cloud division has also announced a deal to provide SSI with access to its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), which are in-house AI chips. This agreement highlights Alphabet's dual role as both an investor and an infrastructure partner, mirroring similar arrangements with other AI companies like Anthropic. Google originally reserved TPUs for in-house use. The deal to sell SSI chips in significant quantities to support its frontier AI research exemplifies the company's ongoing strategy to expand sales to external customers.

Nvidia's involvement further solidifies its commitment to supporting AI research initiatives. Although AI developers have historically preferred Nvidia's Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), SSI is primarily using TPUs for its AI research and development. This preference highlights a potential shift in the AI chip market and the growing competitiveness of Google's TPUs.

These investments reflect a broader trend among tech giants to strategically invest in AI startups while simultaneously selling them computing infrastructure. This dual approach creates a beneficial cycle, enabling AI startups to scale faster and driving demand for the investor's chips and cloud services.

The rapid valuation growth of AI startups like SSI demonstrates investors' willingness to place significant bets on frontier AI research. Global venture funding for AI exceeded $100 billion in 2024, marking an 80% increase from the previous year. This influx of capital is fueling the development of increasingly sophisticated AI models and applications.