Former Google DeepMind researcher David Silver has secured one of Europe's largest AI funding rounds, raising $1.1bn (£880m) for his London-based startup Ineffable Intelligence at a valuation of $5.1bn. The round was led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with additional backing from Nvidia, Google, and Index Ventures.
Growing Investor Appetite for Neolabs
The deal underscores increasing investor interest in so-called "neolabs"—AI startups founded by leading researchers aiming to push beyond current models into more advanced forms of machine intelligence. Silver, who has also been shortlisted for entrepreneur of the year at the City AM Awards, is among several high-profile figures leaving established labs to launch independent ventures.
Focus on Reinforcement Learning
Silver's new company is centered on reinforcement learning, a method where AI systems learn through trial and error rather than relying on large datasets of human-generated content. "Human data is like a kind of fossil fuel that has provided an amazing shortcut," Silver said. "You can think of systems that learn for themselves as a renewable fuel—something that can just learn and learn and learn forever."
This approach contrasts with the dominant strategy behind models such as ChatGPT and Gemini, which are trained on vast amounts of human text. "I think of our mission as making first contact with superintelligence," Silver added, suggesting such systems could eventually "discover new forms of science or technology or government or economics for itself."
Developing Superlearners
The startup plans to develop 'superlearners', AI agents trained in simulated environments capable of developing new capabilities independently of human input. Ravi Mhatre, partner at Lightspeed, noted that Silver's career "is basically a single, coherent argument for being able to scale intelligence without human priors." Sonya Huang, partner at Sequoia, added: "There's only a very, very small number—less than a handful of people—who have done truly foundational work. Dave [Silver] is one of them."
