Ilya Sutskever to Lead Safe Superintelligence Following Co-Founder’s Departure
Jul 4, 2025

Ilya Sutskever to Lead Safe Superintelligence Following Co-Founder’s Departure

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever is taking on the role of CEO at Safe Superintelligence, the AI startup he co-founded in 2024. This announcement comes after Sutskever confirmed on X that Daniel Gross, the startup's co-founder and CEO, had departed the company as of June 29. According to Sutskever, Daniel Levy, another co-founder of Safe Superintelligence, will be taking on the role of president of the startup. The announcement follows reports that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in advanced talks to hire Gross, as well as his longtime investing partner, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. There were also reports that Zuckerberg had attempted to acquire all of Safe Superintelligence, which is currently valued at $32 billion. Addressing these reports, Sutskever stated, "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." Sutskever also shared a message with the team and investors, stating, "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. We are grateful for his early contributions to the company and wish him well in his next endeavors."