Daniel Gross officially departs SSI; Ilya Sutskever takes sole CEO role
Jul 3, 2025
Key Points
- Daniel Gross officially departs Safe Superintelligence on June 29th, exactly one year after the company's founding, triggering speculation he hit an equity cliff.
- Ilya Sutskever assumes sole CEO role with Daniel Levy as president, while Sutskever deflects acquisition interest by emphasizing SSI's compute and team assets.
- Nat Friedman joins Meta this week to build consumer AI products, signaling Meta's pivot toward application-layer development.
Summary
Daniel Gross officially departed Safe Superintelligence on June 29th. Ilya Sutskever is now sole CEO, with Daniel Levy as president. The technical team reports directly to Sutskever.
Sutskever told the team and investors that Gross's departure was expected. The timing suggests Gross may have hit a one-year equity cliff—SSI was founded June 19th, 2024, making the departure just over a year later. Sutskever did not disclose Gross's next move, but reports indicate he is heading to Meta.
Sutskever also addressed acquisition speculation, saying SSI is "flattered by their attention but are focused on seeing our work through." He emphasized the company's compute resources and team as key assets for building safe superintelligence.
Separately, Nat Friedman confirmed he joined Meta this week to build AI products for mass consumer adoption. His move represents Meta's push into consumer-facing AI applications.