San Francisco-based Greenoaks Capital Partners is leading the deal for Safe Superintelligence, founded by Canadian computer scientist Sutskever, who was also co-founder and former chief scientist of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The venture capital firm plans to invest US$500 million in the more-than-US$1-billion round, Bloomberg reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: The mooted deal suggests AI startups with the right pedigree can still fundraise at eye-popping valuations, despite the release of Chinese startup DeepSeek’s budget AI assistant casting doubt on the need for massive amounts of capital. Sutskever participated in the short-lived ouster of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, reportedly amid disagreements over whether the firm was taking safety seriously enough. The fundraising talks come just five months after Safe Superintelligence’s US$1 billion round at a US$5 billion valuation. That’s despite the fact that Safe Superintelligence isn’t generating revenue yet and has no near-term plans to release a commercial product.