DeepMind’s David Silver raises $1.1 billion for AI that learns without human data

David Silver, the DeepMind researcher behind breakthrough AI systems like AlphaZero, has started a new company with big ambitions. His startup Ineffable Intelligence has raised $1.1 billion at a $5.1 billion valuation despite being founded just months ago.

The British AI lab wants to create what it calls a “superlearner” – an AI system that can discover knowledge and skills without using human-generated training data. This approach could sidestep the data limitations that many current AI companies face as they struggle to find enough high-quality content to train their models.

The reinforcement learning approach

Silver’s expertise is in reinforcement learning, where AI systems learn through trial and error rather than studying human examples. This technique powered some of DeepMind’s most impressive achievements while Silver spent over a decade at the Google-owned lab.

His most famous project was AlphaZero, which beat professional players at chess and Go by learning purely from playing against itself. The system never studied human strategies or game records yet defeated the world’s top computer programs in each game.

Now Silver wants to apply this same approach more broadly. As he puts it, if successful, this could be “a scientific breakthrough of comparable magnitude to Darwin: where his law explained all Life, our law will explain and build all Intelligence.”

Massive funding for unproven technology

The $1.1 billion round was led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with backing from Index Ventures, Google, Nvidia, and others. British investors including the British Business Bank and Sovereign AI also participated.

This puts Ineffable Intelligence in the exclusive club of “pentacorn” startups valued above $5 billion. The company joins a trend of AI ventures founded by star researchers attracting massive initial funding rounds – sometimes called “coconut rounds” due to their size.

Just last month, AMI Labs co-founded by Turing Award winner Yann LeCun raised $1.03 billion at a $3.5 billion valuation. Another DeepMind spinoff, Recursive Superintelligence, reportedly raised $500 million with potential to stretch to $1 billion.

London’s growing AI scene

These companies highlight London’s emergence as a major AI hub. DeepMind’s continued presence since Google’s 2014 acquisition has created a powerful alumni network, with several former DeepMind researchers reportedly joining Ineffable’s executive team.

The momentum extends beyond DeepMind alumni. Jeff Bezos’ AI lab Project Prometheus is reportedly looking for office space near Google’s London AI operations.

For Silver personally, this represents what he calls “his life’s work.” In an unusual move for a tech founder, he has pledged that any money he makes from Ineffable will go to high-impact charities focused on saving lives.

Whether the company can deliver on its ambitious vision remains to be seen. But with $1.1 billion in funding, Silver will have plenty of resources to find out if AI can truly learn to understand the world from scratch.