Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is making his next big move in artificial intelligence with his new startup, Safe Superintelligence (SSI). And he’s teaming up with Google Cloud to make it happen. In a press release issued Wednesday, Google Cloud announced that SSI will be using its TPU chips (tensor processing units) to drive forward research and development on safe, superintelligent AI systems.
This partnership signals a serious computing commitment. According to a source familiar with the deal. Google Cloud is now SSI’s primary compute provider, suggesting that the startup plans to spend a significant portion of its multi-million-dollar infrastructure budget with Google. That’s a noteworthy win for Google Cloud. Which has been aggressively courting high-spending AI labs building frontier models that demand immense GPU and TPU resources.
For Google, this is a familiar pattern. The company has repeatedly landed cloud deals with its alumni-turned-AI-founders. Just last year, it became the primary compute partner for World Labs, the AI startup founded by Fei-Fei Li. A former Google Cloud AI chief. Sutskever himself is a Google alum, having worked at Google Brain before co-founding OpenAI in 2015.
Safe Superintelligence has kept a low public profile since emerging from stealth in June 2024, months after Sutskever exited OpenAI amid internal controversy. The startup launched with $1 billion in funding from top-tier firms including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, DST Global, and SV Angel. While details on its work remain sparse, the company’s mission is explicitly focused. To develop safe, superintelligent AI systems—a goal it says defines its name, strategy, and full product roadmap.
Sutskever has described his work at SSI as the next “mountain to climb,” pointing to the startup’s focus on improving the performance and alignment of frontier models. Te next generation of highly capable AI systems. SSI’s emphasis on safety is no surprise. Sutskever led OpenAI’s AI safety team for years and was at the center of the November 2023 boardroom drama that temporarily ousted Sam Altman from OpenAI. A move that backfired and ended with Sutskever helping to reinstate Altman before ultimately departing the company.
While neither SSI nor Google Cloud have disclosed whether other computing providers are involved. This partnership clearly gives Google a lead position. A Google spokesperson declined to comment further, and SSI has not responded to media inquiries.
Still, the optics are significant: as AI labs race to develop the first safe and truly superintelligent model. The competition between cloud providers like Google, AWS, and Microsoft Azure is heating up. With Sutskever’s new venture joining its roster. Google Cloud is positioning itself at the heart of the next wave of AI breakthroughs.
