"ChatGPT Pioneer" Ilya Sutskever, the former Chief Scientist of OpenAI, founded an artificial intelligence (AI) startup called Safe Superintelligence (SSI). Now, Nvidia has poured a massive 7.3 trillion won (5 billion dollars) into SSI, making a powerful strategic move that is reshaking the landscape of next-generation AI leadership competition.

The message that Nvidia, the king of AI semiconductors, conveyed to the artificial intelligence industry was clear. On July 27, 2026 (local time), Nvidia announced a mega-scale investment in SSI and concluded a long-term partnership providing access to its cutting-edge "Vera Rubin Platform." SSI aims to develop next-generation AI technology that will overcome the limitations of large language models (LLMs).

This investment demonstrates Nvidia's willingness to provide full support for SSI's technological advancement, going beyond simple financial backing. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) analyzed Nvidia's move as a strategic positioning to check competitors in the AI semiconductor market and secure a strong ally to preempt future core technologies. Jensen Huang, Nvidia's CEO, expressed expectations by stating, "We look forward to SSI achieving a new technological leap based on our Vera Rubin Platform."

[Photo=Yonhapnews]

At the center of this investment is Ilya Sutskever, an indispensable figure in AI history. He is the pioneer who opened the AI era by co-founding OpenAI in 2015 and developing ChatGPT in 2022. Following his emergence as a key figure during the OpenAI "coup" in November 2023, which included an attempt to oust Sam Altman and the appointment of Mira Murati as interim CEO, he left OpenAI in 2024 and founded SSI. He shares a deep connection with his mentor Geoffrey Hinton, professor and "godfather of AI," who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. Particularly noteworthy, in 2012, Sutskever developed "AlexNet," a high-performance image recognition model using Nvidia's GPUs, becoming the first to prove that GPUs are crucial to AI learning and creating a historic link with Nvidia.

However, the reality of SSI remains "shrouded in mystery." Since its founding in 2024, it has yet to present any new products or specific research achievements. Despite receiving a valuation of 32 billion dollars (approximately 46.9 trillion won) during last year's (2025) funding round of 2 billion dollars (approximately 2.9 trillion won), the company currently has only dozens of employees. Nvidia's massive investment further highlights SSI's stark reality compared to its exceptional valuation, drawing increased attention from the industry.

Nvidia's large-scale strategic investment is evaluated as a move that will usher in a new phase in next-generation AI technology development competition and shake up the AI semiconductor market landscape. All eyes in the industry are focused on whether the "mysterious" SSI will deliver innovation beyond LLM limitations as Sutskever envisions, and how Nvidia will solidify its dominance in the AI ecosystem through this investment.