DeepMind’s David Silver raised $1.1 billion to build AI that learns without human data.

Ineffable Intelligence, the British AI research institute founded just a few months ago by former DeepMind researcher David Silver, has raised $1.1 billion in funding at a $5.1 billion valuation to join the race for new AI models that have the potential to outperform large-scale language models.

By leveraging reinforcement learning, Ineffable aims to create “super learners” who can discover knowledge and skills without relying on human data, according to its newly launched site. Reinforcement learning is a technique in which AI systems learn through trial and error rather than learning from examples created by humans. This is Silver’s specialty.

Silver, a professor at University College London, most recently led the reinforcement learning team at Google-owned DeepMind, where he spent more than a decade before leaving to found this new venture.

While at DeepMind, Silver was involved in developing programs that beat professional players at chess and the board game Go, defeating world-class computer programs at each game, by learning purely from experience, without being provided with human strategies or game records. The most notable of these was AlphaZero. Similarly, Ineffable Intelligence wants super learners to discover all knowledge from their own experiences.

Its super learners may lack experience, but the company doesn’t lack ambition. “If successful, this would represent a scientific advance on a scale comparable to Darwin’s. Just as Darwin’s laws explained all life, our laws will explain and structure all intelligence,” the site claims (with capital letters).

In a personal note he later published on the company’s blog, Silver called Ineffable Intelligence “the work of a lifetime,” and told Wired that “the money we make from Ineffable goes to high-impact charities that save as many lives as possible.”

It’s unclear when and how the venture will become profitable, but it’s clear this hasn’t hindered its ability to raise funds.

According to Wired, the round was led by Sequoia Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from Index Ventures, Google, Nvidia and others. Other investors include the British Business Bank and Sovereign AI, the UK’s recently launched sovereign venture fund for AI.

Fast forward to so-called Pentacorn status (denoting companies valued at $5 billion or more), and Ineffable Intelligence joins the club of AI ventures founded by star researchers that have attracted seed rounds so large they’ve been dubbed coconut rounds (a tongue-in-cheek escalation of the “seed” round). Just last month, AMI Labs, co-founded by Turing Award winner and former meta-AI scientist Yann LeCun, raised $1.03 billion at a pre-money valuation of $3.5 billion.

There may be more companies that fit this mold. Recursive Superintelligence, co-founded by former DeepMind chief scientist Tim Rocktäschel and incorporated in the UK, reportedly raised $500 million and had enough demand to grow that amount to $1 billion.

Recursive also has ties to the US, suggesting these companies are gaining traction around London as an AI hub. This is also thanks to DeepMind’s continued presence even after it was acquired by Google in 2014. But it’s not just DeepMind. Jeff Bezos’ AI lab Project Prometheus is reportedly in talks to secure office space near Google’s AI hub.

This will also lead to a strong alumni network, with several former DeepMind staff reportedly set to join Ineffable’s management team.