DeepMind Legend David Silver Bets $1.1 Billion Against Large Language Models, Argues AI Needs to Learn by Doing

DeepMind's most celebrated AI researcher, David Silver, has left the company to found a venture betting that superintelligence cannot emerge from large language models—a direct challenge to the industry's prevailing development path. Silver, the scientist behind AlphaGo and AlphaZero, launched Ineffable Intelligence in late 2025 and in April 2026 announced a $1.1 billion seed round at a $5.1 billion valuation, the largest seed raise in European history. The funding was co-led by Sequoia Capital and Nvidia, with participation from Google, Lightspeed, DST Global, Index Ventures, and the UK's Sovereign AI Fund.