Daniel Gross
About Daniel Gross
Daniel Gross founded the search engine Cue, which Apple acquired in 2013. He then worked at Apple, where he helped lead machine learning and Siri efforts. He later became a partner at Y Combinator, where he started its AI program. He also founded Pioneer, an online accelerator.
In 2021 he began making larger AI investments with Nat Friedman, the former GitHub CEO, and the two ran AI Grant. In 2023 they raised the NFDG fund. In June 2024 he co-founded Safe Superintelligence (SSI) with Ilya Sutskever and Daniel Levy, and served as its CEO.
Sutskever announced that Gross left SSI on June 29, 2025. Gross then joined Meta. Reports at the time said Meta would also take a stake in NFDG. Gross has since posted on X that he is building out Meta's compute desk.
Wikipedia says Gross started angel investing in 2011. Press and investor directories list early stakes in Uber, Instacart, Figma, GitHub, Airtable, Rippling and Coinbase. Different directories list different companies, so treat these lists as incomplete. Crunchbase shows 38 investments for him. It records no exits and no lead investments, but its coverage of angel deals is partial.
As a Y Combinator partner he worked with early-stage founders. Pioneer stopped making new investments in 2024, according to one summary of his career.
Crunchbase shows 31 AI investments since 2023. Its AI portfolio includes Portola, Suno, Ivo, Magic, Pincites, Consensus, Matic Robots, Perplexity, Zeta Labs, Granola, Hume AI and AssemblyAI.
In 2021 Gross and Friedman began running AI Grant, which gives $250,000 in funding to AI-native companies. In 2023 they deployed the Andromeda Cluster, a supercomputer of 2,512 H100 GPUs, for startups in their portfolio. Wikipedia reports that Gross led a founding round in Perplexity in 2024.
NFDG is a venture firm Gross co-founded with Friedman. The Wall Street Journal reported it had invested about half of its first fund, of roughly $1.1B raised in 2023, when Meta offered to buy up to 49% of the holdings. On the Lounge deals desk, SSI's $1B Series A is dated September 2024. Wikipedia reports that Gross and Friedman invested $3.9M in Pulse in February 2025. Tracxn lists a $5.6M Seed round in Composite in October 2025, with Friedman as a co-investor.
His investing since 2021 centres on AI, including foundation-model labs, AI applications, and the compute and infrastructure startups need. NFDG's stated thesis was investing in AI-native companies. Gross has also posted publicly about GPUs, semiconductors and inference demand.
Mercury's investor database lists him as a full-time angel who invests across stages from pre-seed to Series B and beyond, in all industries except biotech, globally. That entry is a directory listing, not a statement from Gross, and it gives no check range. No check size or personal investment criteria from Gross himself were found in public sources.
Gross is now at Meta, so his current availability for outside angel checks is unclear. NFDG's website was reported down in July 2025.
- Safe Superintelligence: AI lab Gross co-founded in 2024 with Ilya Sutskever and Daniel Levy. Its $1B Series A is dated September 2024.
- Perplexity: AI search company. Wikipedia reports he led a founding round in 2024.
- Suno: AI music generation company, in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Magic: AI company in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Granola: AI note-taking company, listed in his Crunchbase AI portfolio and reported as an NFDG holding.
- Hume AI: AI company in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- AssemblyAI: speech AI company in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Pincites: AI company in his Crunchbase AI portfolio.
- Pulse: AI company. Gross and Friedman invested $3.9M in February 2025.
- Composite: Seed round of $5.6M in October 2025 per Tracxn, with Friedman as a co-investor.
- Figma, Uber, GitHub, Airtable: earlier-stage investments reported in press and directories.
- cnbc.com/2025/06/19/meta-tried-to-buy-safe-superintelligence-hired-ceo
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Gross_(businessman))
- techmeme.com/250703/p32
- mercury.com/investor-database/daniel-gross
- tracxn.com/d/people/daniel-gross/__wLVpgOZFmM8KH-EoYSv6ipumn3_BJgg4neK
- aiwiki.ai/wiki/daniel_gross
- x.com/danielgross
- crunchbase.com/person/a84e3ad4-46f1-4703-3d07-a558c4f6d9e1
AI portfolio
Investing activity
Daniel Gross has made 38 investments according to Crunchbase. 31 of those investments since 2023 were in AI companies, including Portola, Suno, Ivo, Magic and Pincites.
Daniel Gross appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the AI Lounge deals desk, rounds totalling $1B. The rounds are mostly Series A, with a median round size of $1B. The most recent is Safe Superintelligence (Series A, $1B, Sep 2024).
Daniel Gross most often invests alongside Sequoia Capital, Nat Friedman, SV Angel and DST Global, and the companies they back on AI Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Daniel Gross
Who is Daniel Gross?
Daniel Gross is an entrepreneur and investor who founded Cue, which Apple acquired in 2013. He later worked at Apple and Y Combinator, co-founded NFDG with Nat Friedman, and co-founded Safe Superintelligence. He joined Meta in 2025.
What is Daniel Gross's check size?
No check size from Gross is public. Crunchbase and directories do not give a verified range. Reported amounts for individual deals, such as the $3.9M Pulse round, are totals for rounds with other investors, not his own cheque.
What stage does Daniel Gross invest in?
A Mercury directory entry lists pre-seed through Series B and beyond. His NFDG fund described its focus as early-stage AI-native companies. Check this with him directly before pitching.
Which AI startups has Daniel Gross backed?
Crunchbase lists Portola, Suno, Ivo, Magic, Pincites, Consensus, Matic Robots, Perplexity, Zeta Labs, Granola, Hume AI and AssemblyAI. He also co-founded Safe Superintelligence, and NFDG invested in it.
Is Daniel Gross still investing after joining Meta?
Gross joined Meta in 2025, and Meta was reported to be taking a stake in NFDG. How much he still invests personally is not public, so founders should not assume he is taking pitches.
How can founders contact Daniel Gross?
He is on X at @danielgross and has a personal site at dcgross.com. In 2022 he posted an email address on X inviting people to discuss LLM products. Whether he still takes cold outreach is not stated.
Is Daniel Gross an angel investor?
Yes. Daniel Gross invests personally as an angel. Crunchbase counts 38 investments.
What AI companies has Daniel Gross invested in?
Daniel Gross's AI investments include Portola, Suno, Ivo, Magic, Pincites, Consensus, Matic Robots and Perplexity. The 1 round on AI Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
Where is Daniel Gross based?
Daniel Gross is based in United States.
What stage does Daniel Gross invest at?
In the rounds tracked on AI Lounge, Daniel Gross has invested at Series A, with a median round of $1B.