There's a new billionaire on trial for the creator of ChatGPT
USSR-born OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever disclosed a $7 bln stake in the company
Sutzkever (center) has been called the "leader of a coup" to fire Sam Altman (second from right) in 2023 / Photo: X / ilyasut
OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever owns a stake in the artificial intelligence developer worth $7 billion, making him one of OpenAI's largest individual shareholders, Bloomberg writes.
Sutzkever revealed his stake May 11 in court during a deposition in the lawsuit filed by the world's richest man, Elon Musk, against OpenAI. Musk, who helped create OpenAI, claims he was "purposefully manipulated" into funding the startup under the promise that it would remain a nonprofit and put the interests of humanity ahead of profit. Musk is seeking to undo the organization's restructuring into a for-profit company, which would jeopardize OpenAI's plans to hold one of its biggest IPOs this year.
In 2023, Sutzkever, who was then a member of OpenAI's board of directors, became the "leader of a coup" against Sam Altman, who was fired as CEO, The Wall Street Journal wrote, citing sources. According to them, there was a conflict between Sutzkever and Altman over the issue of AI security. In court on Ma. 11, Sutzkever revealed that he began worrying about Altman a year before these events. He said he told other directors that Altman was systematically lying, undermining managers' authority and pitting them against each other, Forbes writes. In November 2023, Sutzkever was one of the directors who voted to remove Altman. But just a few days later, he publicly stated that he was sorry and signed a petition demanding that he be returned to the post of CEO.
After Altman's return, Sutzkever was removed from the board of directors and left OpenAI altogether in 2024. He founded Safe Superintelligence, an artificial intelligence research lab. As of April 2025, it was valued at $32 billion.
Context
Sutzkever became the second OpenAI billionaire whose fortune was disclosed during the trial, Forbes notes. Last week, the company's president Greg Brockman also revealed in court that his stake in OpenAI is estimated at almost $30 billion. Sam Altman's fortune is estimated by Forbes at $3.5 billion, Elon Musk's at $827 billion.
Neither Sutzkever nor Brockman are currently on Forbes or Bloomberg's list of billionaires. Since they hold stakes in a non-public company, it is not possible to estimate their fortunes accurately, Bloomberg wrote.
This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor
