Ilya Sutskever, the former chief scientist of OpenAI who now runs Safe Superintelligence Inc., disclosed during testimony in the Musk-OpenAI litigation on Monday that his ownership stake in OpenAI is worth approximately $7bn, Reuters and other outlets reported.
The disclosure makes Sutskever one of the largest individual shareholders in OpenAI, alongside Sam Altman and a small number of early backers. Sutskever was a co-founder of OpenAI and one of the company's most cited researchers before leaving in May 2024 amid the boardroom dispute that briefly removed Altman as CEO.
Sutskever's testimony came as part of Elon Musk's ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI. The case challenges OpenAI's transition from a non-profit research entity to a capped-profit-and-commercial structure and asks the court to revisit the corporate-governance arrangements that underpinned that change.
Sutskever was called as a witness because of his role as co-founder and his presence on the board during the contested period. The $7bn figure was disclosed in the context of his answers to questions about his current financial relationship with the company. OpenAI closed its most recent primary round at an $852bn post-money valuation.
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Sutskever's holding has not been disclosed in detail before. Public commentary on OpenAI cap-table composition has been limited; secondary-market price-discovery activity has implied wide dispersion between the primary round mark and recent secondary lots.
Sutskever's own current venture, Safe Superintelligence, reached a $32bn valuation in its most recent round, having raised more than $3bn to date with no product disclosed to the public. The company is focused, as its name implies, on building safe superintelligence, with a research-only operating model under Sutskever's direction.
The disclosure of Sutskever's OpenAI stake is procedurally significant for the Musk case in several respects. It clarifies the scale of the financial interest the original founding cohort retained after OpenAI's restructuring; it provides a data point Musk's legal team can use to argue that OpenAI's transition from non-profit benefited a small number of insiders; and it complicates Sutskever's position as a witness, given that his testimony bears on the value of an asset he holds.
Court filings have not released the precise legal form of Sutskever's stake (whether common, preferred or profit-participation units) or the vesting schedule. OpenAI declined to comment on his testimony, citing the active litigation. Sutskever himself has not commented publicly on the disclosure.
The Musk case is being heard in the Northern District of California. Trial is scheduled for the autumn, although several procedural motions remain outstanding. The court has indicated it may consolidate Musk's claims with related shareholder and stakeholder actions filed in late 2025.
The $7bn number is meaningful in absolute terms even at OpenAI's recent valuation. At a roughly 0.8% implied stake, it places Sutskever firmly within the top tier of OpenAI's individual holders, although below the level held by Altman and substantially below the institutional positions held by Microsoft, SoftBank, Amazon, and Nvidia.