Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is putting money and hardware behind Safe Superintelligence, the lab founded by former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.

The arrangement gives Sutskever greater access to Nvidia’s graphics chips and reduces the startup’s earlier reliance on processors from Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL). Nvidia described the funding as “substantial,” but neither company disclosed the amount. Financial terms remain private, and neither side provided a timeline for hardware deliveries.

The companies said the new hardware could increase the startup’s computing capacity by an “order of magnitude,” a notable boost for a research lab that has operated largely out of public view while competing for scarce AI infrastructure.

Safe Superintelligence had primarily trained its systems using Google’s tensor processing units, or TPUs. It will now add a large number of Nvidia GPUs, which are widely used for large-scale AI training runs. The deal also gives Nvidia another prominent research customer as chipmakers compete for future demand.

Nvidia adds another former OpenAI leader to its hardware ecosystem

Nvidia made a similar deal in March with Mira Murati, OpenAI’s former technology chief. Murati co-founded Thinking Machines Lab in 2025. Nvidia invested in that company in March, and Thinking Machines released its first model this month using Nvidia chips.

Safe Superintelligence was founded in 2024. Sutskever built the company around one goal: creating what he calls “safe superintelligence.” He defines that as AI capable of doing anything humans can do without posing danger. The company’s approach is a “straight-shot” research effort rather than a conventional product roadmap with public releases.

Safe Superintelligence has raised about $2 billion from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. By late last year, the company had reached a valuation of around $30 billion without a public model or a specific product strategy. Its valuation was driven largely by Sutskever’s reputation and his previous work at OpenAI.

The lab has kept nearly all technical details private. Sutskever said its scientists are “focused on overlooked aspects of how the human brain functions.” Nvidia reviewed the company’s work more closely before committing capital and chips. The deal gives the lab another source of computing power as AI labs continue to compete for access to high-end chips.

Apple retakes the top valuation as chip stocks fall

The announcement came on a weak day for Nvidia shares. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) fell 5% on Monday and ended the session with a market value of $4.77 trillion. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) rose 1% to $4.95 trillion, putting it ahead of Nvidia for the first time since April 2025.

Nvidia had been the world’s most valuable company since June 2025, when it overtook Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Its valuation briefly reached $5 trillion in October. So far in 2026, Nvidia stock has gained only 4%, while Apple has risen 24%.

Apple has spent less on building its own AI data centers and has instead chosen to rent capacity. Investors have favored that approach as concerns grow about the heavy costs of AI infrastructure. Nvidia’s sales remain in their third year of strong AI-driven growth, but some capital has flowed to memory makers and other suppliers benefiting from data-center demand.

Those companies include Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU), SK Hynix (KRX: 000660), and SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK). Apple is scheduled to report fiscal third-quarter results on Thursday, and the release is expected to show the financial impact of the global memory shortage tied to AI demand. Apple raised Mac and iPad prices in June after memory costs increased.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 262.83 points, or 0.51%, to close at 52,210.08. The S&P 500 gained 0.02% to end at 7,413.18, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.18% to 24,932.08.

Chip stocks trimmed some early losses but still finished lower. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ: SMH) fell more than 2% after also declining on Friday. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) dropped 5%, Teradyne (NASDAQ: TER) fell 4%, and Micron declined about 2%.

Oil prices also fell after the United States and Iran paused attacks. September Brent crude futures dropped 8.7% to $88.36 per barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures lost 7.5% and settled at $82.61 per barrel.