Six new co-founders join Ineffable Intelligence
David Silver, a former researcher at Google DeepMind, announced that his London-based AI start-up, Ineffable Intelligence, has added six high-profile co-founders. Four of the newcomers, Chris Apps, Wojciech Czarnecki, Lasse Espeholt and Junhyuk Oh, previously worked with Silver on DeepMind's 2019 AlphaStar project, the system that defeated the world's best players at Starcraft II. The fifth, Alexandre Laterre, comes from InstaDeep, a London AI firm acquired by BioNTech in 2023, while the sixth, Heather Gorham, was a partner at the venture capital firm Flying Fish, an early backer of Ineffable.
Why the talent shift matters
The appointments illustrate a broader trend of senior DeepMind researchers moving to rival European AI companies, often called "neolabs". Ineffable's latest seed round raised $1.1 billion, valuing the start-up at $5 billion, the largest seed investment ever recorded in Europe. Such funding, led by investors including Sequoia and Lightspeed Ventures, signals strong market confidence in the next generation of frontier AI firms.
Background on the new hires
Junhyuk Oh led the reinforcement-learning work on AlphaStar and was among the first to use AI to discover new reinforcement-learning algorithms in 2025. Wojciech Czarnecki specialised in multi-agent research, overseeing DeepMind's capture-the-flag experiments in virtual worlds. Chris Apps managed large research programmes at DeepMind after stints at Barclays and Deloitte. Lasse Espeholt helped build Google's MetNet weather-prediction models, and will now direct Ineffable's compute and infrastructure strategy. Alexandre Laterre will oversee research engineering, while Heather Gorham will handle compute, fundraising and operations.
What comes next for Ineffable
Ineffable's mission is to create AI superintelligence using reinforcement learning, a technique where an AI model learns through trial and error to maximise a reward set by its trainers. With Oh heading reinforcement-learning research, the start-up is likely to pursue automated AI-research methods aimed at "recursive self-improvement", where AI systems autonomously enhance future versions of themselves. The company also secured a partnership with Google Cloud for computing power, positioning it to scale its experiments quickly.
As the new co-founders settle into their roles, industry observers will watch whether Ineffable can translate its deep-tech talent and hefty funding into breakthroughs that challenge the dominance of established players such as DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic.