DeepMind’s David Silver just raised $1.1B to build an AI that learns without human data

Ineffable Intelligence, a British AI lab founded by former DeepMind researcher David Silver, has raised $1.1 billion at a $5.1 billion valuation. The company aims to build a 'superlearner' AI that discovers knowledge without relying on human data, using reinforcement learning — the same approach Silver used at DeepMind to create AlphaZero, which mastered chess and Go purely through self-play. The round was led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed, with participation from Google, Nvidia, Index Ventures, and the UK's Sovereign AI fund. The raise follows a broader trend of massive 'coconut rounds' for AI labs founded by star researchers, including Yann LeCun's AMI Labs and Tim Rocktäschel's Recursive Superintelligence, signaling growing momentum around London as an AI hub.