OpenAI’s former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever has raised $1 billion (£759.4 million) for his new AI startup, Safe Superintelligence (SSI), which will work to develop advanced AI systems with safeguards built in, what the startup calls ‘the most important technical problem of our​​ time.’

Although the company has not shared its valuation, Reuters reports that sources close to the deal said the investment round has SSI valued at a staggering $5 billion.

Investors in the deal include Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global and SV Angel. NFDG, an investment partnership run by Nat Friedman and SSI’s chief executive, Daniel Gross, has also taken a stake. 

SSI has said that it plans to use the investment round to build computing power and hire researchers and engineers between its offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv.

According to the firm’s website, SSI’s sole goal is the creation of this safe superintelligence, and won’t be working on any other products, claiming that the team will be ‘insulated from short-term commercial pressures.’ 

Without a product, or a clear roadmap to achieving AI superintelligence, it’s unclear how investors reached the $5 billion price tag, although Sutskever’s presence at the top might explain that to some degree.

As one of the most influential technologists in AI, Sutskever was OpenAI’s chief scientist and co-led the company’s Superalignment team that worked to establish safeguards at the firm, before leaving to co-found SSI in June with Daniel Levy, a former OpenAI researcher, and Gross, who led AI projects at Apple.

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Recent days have seen a drop in value for global big hitters working on AI tech. Yesterday, it was reported that Nvidia’s market share value fell nearly 10% as investors grow impatient to see returns on AI investments, breaking a record for the biggest single-day decline for a US company.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, Apple, and Microsoft all saw their shares fall as well, marking a potential stagnation in AI positivity, while Intel shares slid a staggering 7% this week, and now risks being removed from the Dow Jones.

Commenting on the investment, Daniel Gross said: “It’s important for us to be surrounded by investors who understand, respect and support our mission, which is to make a straight shot to safe superintelligence and in particular to spend a couple of years doing R&D on our product before bringing it to market.”