Business · CNBC Technology
Silver is one of several former top researchers at Big Tech companies who've jumped ship to launch their own AI
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Last week, a months-old startup called Recursive Superintelligence — founded by former Google DeepMind engineer Tim Rocktäschel, was reported by the Financial Times to be raising up to $1 billion.
Key facts
- A former top researcher at Google AI division DeepMind announced Monday a record $1.1 billion seed round for his months-old startup, Ineffable Intelligence
- Last week, a months-old startup called Recursive Superintelligence — founded by former Google DeepMind engineer Tim Rocktäschel — was reported by the Financial Times to be raising up to $1 billion
- The startup is pursuing superintelligence and was founded in late 2025 by UCL professor and former lead of DeepMind's reinforcement learning team, David Silver
- Ineffable Intelligence will focus on reinforcement learning, which is when artificial intelligence models learn from experience as opposed to human data
Summary
A former top researcher at Google AI division DeepMind announced Monday a record $1.1 billion seed round for his months-old startup, Ineffable Intelligence. The startup is pursuing superintelligence and was founded in late 2025 by UCL professor and former lead of DeepMind's reinforcement learning team, David Silver. The round was co-led by U.S. venture capitalists Sequoia and Lightspeed, with participation from Nvidia, DST Global, Index, Google and the U.K.'s Sovereign AI Fund, among others. Ineffable Intelligence will focus on reinforcement learning, which is when artificial intelligence models learn from experience as opposed to human data. Silver said the company is aiming to "transcend the greatest inventions in human history, such as language, science, mathematics and technology.