Jensen Huang continues to methodically clear the AI playing field, transforming NVIDIA from a mere supplier of "shovels" into the primary shareholder of the future. His latest move is a "substantial" investment in Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the laboratory founded by Ilya Sutskever. According to official statements, this is more than just a partnership; it is a strategic defection. SSI is winding down its operations on Google’s cloud infrastructure and its proprietary TPU chips. Instead, the project aiming to create superintelligence is migrating to the Vera Rubin platform—NVIDIA’s next-generation GPUs that have not even entered mass production yet.
For Google, this is a painful slap in the face. While the search giant has spent years trying to prove its custom TPU processors can compete with the "Green Giant," Sutskever—a man who understands the physics of model training better than most—has voted with his feet. The transition to the Vera Rubin architecture is expected to provide SSI with a tenfold increase in computing power. This is critical for Sutskever: in his own words, he intends to focus on biological principles of brain function that the industry has supposedly overlooked. Clearly, the "direct path" to AGI requires the raw power of Huang’s architecture rather than Google’s marketing promises.
Key Takeaways:
SSI is completely abandoning Google Cloud infrastructure and TPU chips in favor of the NVIDIA stack. Sutskever’s project will be among the first users of the unannounced Vera Rubin architecture. The startup’s valuation has reached $30 billion despite having no finished product. NVIDIA is cementing its status as the ultimate gatekeeper for access to frontier computing.
From a financial perspective, SSI has become an anomaly. Founded only in 2024, the company has released no products but has already raised approximately $2 billion from Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and DST Global. A $30 billion valuation looks like madness unless you consider the context: NVIDIA isn't just providing capital; it is selling priority access to scarce hardware.
This is classic vertical integration. Huang is cementing a monopoly by tethering the most promising visionaries to his stack, turning chip market competitors into mere bystanders at SSI’s table.
In our view, this deal finally settles the question of NVIDIA’s "neutrality." The company no longer wants to be just infrastructure—it is picking winners and arming them with weapons unavailable to anyone else. For the business world, the signal is clear: the era of multi-cloud strategies in heavy AI is ending before it truly began. You are either in line for Vera Rubin, or you are trying to build the future on technology that even Sutskever has rejected.