Ilya Sutskever testifies in Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI, revealing $7 billion ownership stake and defending his role in Sam Altman's 2023 ouster

Sutskever disclosed an ownership stake in OpenAI's $850-billion for-profit arm currently worth about $7 billion, making him one of the largest known individual shareholders. He testified that he helped collect evidence of Altman's alleged deception and assisted in drafting a memo to the board ahead of Altman's brief removal as CEO in November 2023.

Sutskever stated he supported firing Altman because 'an environment where executives don't have the correct information' is not conducive to reaching major goals, but criticized board colleagues for rushing the process and accepting poor legal advice. He has been estranged from Altman and Brockman since the ouster and left OpenAI in 2024 to form a competing AI lab.

In testimony supporting Musk's claims, Sutskever described the superalignment team he led—which focused on the safety of future models—as doing the most important work at OpenAI for the long term. The team was disbanded in May 2024, shortly after Sutskever's departure.