Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever has stepped into the CEO role at Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the AI safety startup he co-founded in 2024, following the departure of former CEO Daniel Gross to Meta Platforms.
Sutskever announced the leadership change on July 3, 2025, confirming that Gross had officially left SSI on June 29 after a period of winding down his involvement. In his message to staff and investors, Sutskever expressed gratitude for Gross's early contributions while emphasizing the company's continued mission.
The executive shuffle comes amid an aggressive AI talent acquisition strategy by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has been on a multibillion-dollar hiring spree. After failing to acquire SSI outright, Zuckerberg successfully recruited Gross along with his business partner Nat Friedman, former GitHub CEO, to join Meta's newly formed Superintelligence Labs.
SSI, which is focused on developing safe artificial intelligence systems, has attracted significant investor interest despite not yet launching a product. The company raised $2 billion in April 2025 at a $32 billion valuation in a round led by Greenoaks Capital Partners, following an earlier $1 billion round from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.
Sutskever's dual role as CEO and chief scientist positions him to steer SSI's scientific and strategic direction, leveraging his extensive expertise in neural networks and AI safety. With no product to show yet, the company's substantial funding represents investors' faith in Sutskever's reputation and SSI's novel approach to AI safety.
Meta's aggressive recruitment efforts extend beyond Gross and Friedman. Zuckerberg has personally led a talent raid across the AI industry, creating Meta Superintelligence Labs under the leadership of former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, who joined after Meta's $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI. The company has also hired researchers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, with reported signing bonuses as high as $100 million.
Despite the leadership change, SSI remains committed to its original mission. "We are flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through," Sutskever wrote, addressing acquisition rumors. "We have the compute, we have the team, and we know what to do. Together we will keep building safe superintelligence."