Here’s what’s on our plate today:

• 🧠 Nvidia & Alphabet double down on “safe” superintelligence.

• 🌐 Perplexity becomes a default search option in Chrome.

• 🤖 Nvidia launches “Cosmos” for real-world robotics AI.

• 📊 Datumo raises $15.5M to challenge Scale AI’s eval monopoly.

Let’s dive in. No floaties needed…

The Laboratory

Why Nvidia and Alphabet’s investment in Safe Superintelligence is a game-changer

Since the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, artificial intelligence has dominated the minds of businesses, investors, and consumers. With billions being invested to propel the growth of this budding domain of tech, it has the potential to reshape the world not just economically, but also socially and politically.

However, so far, the industry has been dominated by a few names that have been at the forefront of research and deployment of AI models. OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Alphabet, and Meta are some of the top names that come to mind when one thinks about AI. While these companies continue to innovate and expand consumer and business understanding and adoption of AI, they have been focused on monetizing the technology.

Under these circumstances, Safe Superintelligence (SSI) has emerged as the flag bearer of individuals looking to make sure AI is more than a commodity for sale and can be used for the improvement of mankind, and not just to make a few rich.

Safe Superintelligence: The AI startup making waves

Co-founded by Ilya Sutskever—former chief scientist at OpenAI—alongside Daniel Gross and Daniel Levy, Safe Superintelligence Inc. (SSI) entered the AI scene with a singular, ambitious goal: developing safe, aligned, and scalable superintelligence. With headquarters strategically positioned in Palo Alto, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel, SSI quickly became a beacon of curiosity and strategic investment from global tech giants.

The startup was estimated to be valued at least $20 billion by February 2025 after having raised a billion dollars in funding from five investors, including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and DST Global. Currently, it is estimated to have a valuation of around $32 billion after another successful round of funding that was led by Greenoaks. With just these two rounds, the company has become one of the highest-profile startups working on AI model research.

A mission to prioritize safety and alignment in AI

Sutskever's previous tenure at OpenAI—during the creation of groundbreaking technologies such as GPT-4—positions him uniquely to grasp both the opportunities and risks inherent in increasingly advanced AI models. His departure from OpenAI to establish SSI signaled industry-wide recognition of the urgency in integrating safety considerations earlier into AI research and development lifecycles.

SSI’s leadership emphasizes proactive safety research, collaborative oversight, and a transparent approach to superintelligence development—an ethos that has resonated strongly with investors and global tech stakeholders increasingly wary of unchecked technological acceleration.

The company is yet to show how it is going to make that money back; it continues to focus on its founding mission to ‘develop superintelligence’ that is smarter than humans while aligned with human interest.

Beyond its mission, not much is known about the secretive startup or its work; SSI has said it intends to "scale in peace" by insulating its progress from short-term commercial pressures.

Nvidia and Alphabet join the strategic AI race

The artificial intelligence startup received the backing of Alphabet and Nvidia, along with prominent venture capital investors, to become one of the most valuable artificial intelligence startups.

Funding in SSI is coming in at a time when investors are facing questions about their outsized bet on AI models, especially considering the disruption caused by the launch of the DeepSeek R1 model.

According to its developers, R1 was developed at a fraction of the cost that went into developing and training models in the U.S., like the ones from OpenAI, raising questions about the projected growth of Nvidia reflected in the stock value.

Nvidia’s strategic move for AI dominance

For Nvidia, a dominant supplier of GPUs critical to AI computation, ensuring it remains indispensable within the AI ecosystem is crucial. With its investments in SSI, the chipmaker is giving a clear indication that it sees SSI's research and goals as highly relevant to its own future business growth.

Advanced AI workloads—especially at superintelligence levels—demand vast amounts of computational power, which Nvidia is uniquely suited to provide through its sophisticated GPUs and associated infrastructure.

For Nvidia, investing in SSI goes beyond merely supporting hardware demands. By aligning with SSI, Nvidia gains early insights and potentially strategic influence over cutting-edge developments in AI safety research, preparing it to shape—and benefit from—the inevitable technological breakthroughs ahead. For Nvidia, the future of AI hardware isn't just about capability but ensuring its infrastructure supports responsibly deployed, trustworthy AI.

Alphabet shifts strategy towards external chip sales

For Alphabet, the rise of SSI could usher in an era of shifting from software to hardware. Google’s parent company has been developing its in-house chips for some time. However, these Tensor chips, designed for AI workloads, were reserved for in-house use. With SSI, the company is shifting strategies and preparing to sell chips in significant quantities to SSI, exemplifying its strategy to expand sales to external users.

The investment in SSI enables Alphabet to remain closely integrated into high-impact research and advanced AI safety practices championed by Sutskever. Importantly, Alphabet’s investment includes not just capital but also access to Google’s Cloud infrastructure, which will significantly bolster SSI’s computational capabilities and accelerate the startup’s progress toward its ambitious goals.

This move represents Alphabet’s commitment to maintaining leadership in AI innovation while carefully navigating increasing scrutiny around AI’s societal impacts.

Broader implications: Setting the stage for AI’s future

SSI not only represents continued investor interest in AI but also signals a broader strategic shift for AI companies. The speed and enthusiasm with which SSI received funding reflect an expectation within the AI industry for increased regulations. Developing and investing in AI aligned with human interests appears to be a safer, more strategic bet.

Additionally, for companies like Nvidia and Alphabet, investing in SSI makes sense as it pushes the conversation towards a point where Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) becomes achievable. In that case, it positions both established companies better, giving them an upper hand when it comes to AGI research.

By investing heavily, Nvidia solidifies its role as the essential provider of computational power. Alphabet likewise continues to consolidate influence across AI software, cloud infrastructure, and foundational research. Together, these giants shape the AI landscape, creating high barriers to entry for competitors lacking significant resources or strategic alliances.

Safe Superintelligence Inc.’s emergence and subsequent backing from Nvidia and Alphabet are not isolated events—they are part of a broader evolution in how the technology industry approaches artificial intelligence.

TL;DR

• Safe Superintelligence (SSI) was co-founded by ex-OpenAI scientist Ilya Sutskever.

• It’s raised billions from backers like Nvidia, Alphabet, and top VCs.

• Unlike other AI startups, SSI is focused solely on aligned superintelligence—not products.

• Nvidia and Alphabet gain early access and strategic positioning in the AGI arms race.

Quick Friday Poll

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Weekend To-Do

• 🤓 Try this: Read The Bitter Lesson by Rich Sutton—it’s short, sharp, and explains why brute-force computing might always beat clever tricks. Essential if you’re tracking where AGI is headed.

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