Ilya Sutskever has stepped in as the new head of Safe Superintelligence after losing CEO Daniel Gross to Meta.
The shift highlights the fierce Safe Superintelligence AI talent war as tech giants fight to recruit top minds in artificial intelligence.
Meta recently poached Gross while also attempting to acquire SSI itself, which is valued at nearly $32 billion.
Sutskever confirmed the development in a post on X, saying SSI remains focused despite intense acquisition interest.
“You might have heard rumors,” he wrote. “We’re flattered but committed to finishing what we started.”
Sutskever, who co-founded OpenAI and served as its chief scientist, left after the controversial ousting and return of Sam Altman.
Last year, Safe Superintelligence secured $1 billion to develop AI systems that aim to safely surpass human intelligence.
Meta, meanwhile, is doubling down. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has launched Meta Superintelligence Labs to revive the company’s AI momentum.
The new unit will be led by Alexandr Wang, former Scale AI CEO, and Nat Friedman, ex-GitHub chief.
Meta had earlier invested $14.3 billion in Scale, underlining its urgency to stay ahead in the AI race.
Friedman and Gross co-founded venture capital firm NFDG, which has invested in Safe Superintelligence, Perplexity, and Figma.
Sources say Meta even offered to buy a minority stake in NFDG’s funds through a tender deal with existing investors.
While Meta did not comment, and NFDG couldn’t be reached, the Safe Superintelligence AI talent war remains red-hot.
Big tech continues to dangle huge pay packages and equity to attract the next generation of AI pioneers.
Sutskever, now fully in control at SSI, looks determined to guide the company through these aggressive recruitment storms.
