Ilya Sutskever had left OpenAI after a failed coup attempt in late 2023, but he had already amassed a serious amount of equity in the company.
Newly revealed emails from the OpenAI-Elon Musk lawsuit show that Sutskever, OpenAI’s former chief scientist and a key figure in the brief ouster of CEO Sam Altman, held equity valued between $3 billion and $4 billion in the company as of November 2023.
The email exchange, dated November 20, 2023, occurred during the chaotic days following Altman’s removal from OpenAI. In the messages, Altman and COO Brad Lightcap discussed the equity implications of a potential Microsoft acquisition of OpenAI’s employees—a scenario that was reportedly being considered as hundreds of employees threatened to follow Altman out the door.
When Altman asked Lightcap to confirm the total dollar amount of equity that would need to be issued to employees, Lightcap responded with a striking calculation: “Satya – depending on how Ilya’s equity is accounted for, OAI employee vehicle would require $25B if Ilya has no equity or $29B if he retains his vested units.”
The $4 billion difference represents Sutskever’s vested equity stake in OpenAI at the time—a staggering sum that underscores both his early and significant role in the company’s formation and the enormous valuation OpenAI had achieved by late 2023.
OpenAI was valued at roughly $86 billion a month before this conversation. It is now worth $500 billion, so Ilya Sutskever’s stake could possibly be worth as much as $20 billion at this point.
Sutskever was one of OpenAI’s co-founders in 2015 and served as its chief scientist, playing a crucial role in developing GPT-4 and the company’s AI safety initiatives. However, he was also a member of the board that voted to remove Altman in November 2023, citing concerns about Altman’s leadership and transparency with the board.
The coup ultimately failed after overwhelming employee backlash, and Altman was reinstated as CEO within days. Sutskever publicly expressed regret for his role in the board’s decision, tweeting “I deeply regret my participation in the board’s actions.” He remained at OpenAI until May 2024, when he departed to found his own AI safety company, Safe Superintelligence Inc.
The revelation of Sutskever’s equity stake provides new context to the high-stakes drama that unfolded during those turbulent November days. With billions of dollars in personal equity on the line, the decision to vote against Altman represented an enormous financial risk for Sutskever—suggesting his concerns about the company’s direction were deeply held, regardless of how the situation ultimately resolved. And it also suggests that Ilya himself has considerable financial resources, which he could use over several years to be able to to single-shot superintelligence at his new startup.