Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) have reportedly decided to invest in the artificial intelligence startup co-founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
What Happened: The specific terms of Nvidia’s and Alphabet’s investments in Safe Superintelligence (SSI) have not been disclosed, reported Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter.
Earlier this week, Alphabet’s cloud division signed an agreement to provide SSI with access to its custom-built AI chips, known as tensor processing units (TPUs).
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While TPUs were initially reserved for internal use only, Google is now scaling up external sales of these chips to support advanced AI research, the report noted, citing Darren Mowry, a managing director overseeing Google’s startup collaborations
Traditionally, AI developers have leaned on Nvidia’s GPUs, which dominate the AI chip market with an over 80% share. However, according to two individuals familiar with the matter, SSI is largely relying on Google’s TPUs over GPUs for its AI work.
Google Cloud currently provides access to both Nvidia GPUs and its own TPUs. These proprietary chips are already instrumental in training major AI models — including those from Anthropic, a key OpenAI rival supported by billions in funding from both Google and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Meanwhile, Amazon has entered the fray with its own chips — Trainium and Inferentia — aimed at competing in the AI infrastructure space. As early as 2023, the company disclosed that Anthropic would build its systems using Amazon’s chips.
In December, Amazon unveiled a supercomputer powered by hundreds of thousands of its in-house processors, with Anthropic as its inaugural user.
Despite these developments, sources say Anthropic continues to actively use Google’s TPUs and hasn’t cut back on its investments in them, the report said.
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Why It Matters: The trend of cloud giants investing in AI startups that not only develop foundational models but also act as infrastructure clients is gaining momentum.
Amazon and Google have both backed Anthropic, while Microsoft has made major investments in OpenAI. Nvidia, meanwhile, supports both OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI venture.
SSI, which has reached a reported valuation of $32 billion in a funding round led by Greenoaks, has quickly become one of the most closely watched companies in the AI space.
Meanwhile, Mira Murati, another former OpenAI executive, is also reportedly seeking to raise a record-breaking $2 billion for her new AI venture, Thinking Machines Lab.
Amazon boasts an impressive growth score of 94.18%, according to Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings. You can compare this with companies like Nvidia, Alphabet, and others by clicking here.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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