NVIDIA invests in a new AI lab co-founded by OpenAI, providing large-scale GPU computing power support.

According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, NVIDIA has invested in Safe Superintelligence (SSI) — the AI lab founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever — and the two parties have reached a long-term cooperation agreement. The deal aims to expand SSI’s computing resources while helping NVIDIA secure key clients in the AI sector. The companies stated that NVIDIA made a "large-scale" investment after reviewing some of SSI’s research progress, though the specific amount was not disclosed. As part of the partnership, SSI will gain access to a large volume of NVIDIA’s flagship GPU resources, which is expected to boost its computing power by an order of magnitude. Prior to this, SSI had relied primarily on Google’s TPU chips for AI research and development. The collaboration marks NVIDIA’s further expansion of its AI chip ecosystem, as it locks in future computing power demands by investing in top-tier AI labs. Founded in 2024 by Ilya Sutskever, SSI’s goal is to develop "safe superintelligence". The firm has previously raised around $2 billion in funding, with backers including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, and was valued at roughly $30 billion last year. This is not NVIDIA’s first investment in an AI company founded by a former OpenAI core member. In March this year, NVIDIA also invested in Thinking Machines Lab, established by former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, whose first AI model was trained on NVIDIA hardware. Ilya Sutskever is a leading researcher in modern artificial intelligence, who co-founded OpenAI and contributed to the development of large models like ChatGPT. However, after leaving OpenAI, he began to question the approach of advancing AI solely by scaling up data and computing power, shifting his focus to exploring new directions in superintelligence research.