In a notable change at Safe Superintelligence, co-founder Ilya Sutskever has taken over as CEO – a move that marks a fresh chapter for the startup he founded in 2024. Announcing the shift on X, he also confirmed that co-founder and former CEO Daniel Gross left on June 29, with Daniel Levy stepping in as president.
This leadership transition comes amid rumoured moves from Meta. Reports suggest that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been in talks to recruit Gross – along with Nat Friedman, GitHub’s former CEO – and even eyed a potential acquisition of the firm, which now stands valued at $32 billion. Sutskever responded to these speculations by saying, “You might have heard companies are lining up to acquire us. We’re flattered, but our focus is on the work ahead. We have the compute, the team and a clear path – together, we’ll keep building safe superintelligence.”
The sudden exit of Gross raises some questions. If the company was close to cracking groundbreaking tech, why leave now? As the world’s first dedicated lab for Superintelligence Safety Initiatives (SSI), Safe Superintelligence remains committed solely to its core mission.
Sutskever’s journey – from his days as OpenAI’s chief scientist to co-founding this startup after a contentious exit that even saw former CEO Sam Altman removed temporarily – sets the stage for the challenges ahead. He now has to balance technical leadership with managing investor expectations and recruiting fresh talent.
On the other side, Meta is not standing still. Under Zuckerberg’s direction, its new Superintelligence Labs aim to weave AI advancements into a range of products, capitalising on its strength in launching services that engage billions. If Gross opts for a role at Meta, he might well find familiar ground, drawing on his earlier experience with Apple’s AI teams following an acquisition.
For anyone tracking the evolving landscape of AI, this leadership change is more than a simple reshuffle—it signals a recalibration in the high-stakes world of tech innovation.
