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Ilya Sutskever Fired Sam Altman From OpenAI, Didn't Look at Internet ...
Ilya Sutskever testified at Elon Musk's trial against Sam Altman about power clashes from his time at OpenAI. Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images 2026-05-11T22:57:22.595Z Ilya Sutskever voted to oust Sam Altman from OpenAI. After doing so, he didn't look at the internet, he testified Monday. Sutskever said he changed his mind and worried OpenAI would collapse without Altman. The chaos that followed Sam Altman's firing was one of the biggest business stories of 2023. Ilya Sutskever, one of the board members who voted to fire Altman, wasn't checking the play-by-play that followed his decision online, he testified on Monday. "Did you pretty much avoid the internet over the weekend?" Sutskever was asked at the trial for Elon Musk's lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI on Monday."Yes," Sutskever answered.Sutskever is one of the most important early employees at OpenAI. Musk and Altman, who co-founded the artificial intelligence organization, wooed him from Google, where he gave up a $6 million salary. At OpenAI, he saw the change to create transformative AI technology that could benefit all of humanity. Musk, in his lawsuit, accuses Altman of betraying that promise by effectively turning OpenAI into a for-profit entity through a partnership with Microsoft. In his witness testimony Monday, Sutskever said long-simmering problems with Altman's leadership led him to vote with other board members to remove him.Sutskever had authored a memo making the case for Altman's removal based on what he saw as a consistent pattern of lying and pitting other OpenAI executives against each other, as he told Musk's lawyer Steven Molo in his testimony.Because he was not looking at the internet, Sutskever missed an offer Microsoft sent that Sunday to hire every OpenAI employee, he testified. In the same time period, 95% of OpenAI employees signed a letter threatening to quit if Altman was not reinstated as CEO.Those events led Sutskever to change tack and support Altman's return to OpenAI."I felt that, had I not done this, the company would be destroyed," Sutskever said in his testimony Monday.Sutskever quit OpenAI soon after Altman's return to the company and now runs a company called Safe Superintelligence Inc.He still owns shares in OpenAI. He testified they could be worth as much as $7 billion.
Ex-OpenAI exec Sutskever says he spent a year gathering proof of ...
Item 1 of 2 OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever walks outside a U.S. federal courthouse as the trial in Elon Musk's lawsuit over OpenAI's for-profit conversion continues, in Oakland, California, U.S., May 11, 2026. REUTERS/Manuel Orbegozo[1/2]OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever walks outside a U.S. federal courthouse as the trial in Elon Musk's lawsuit over OpenAI's for-profit conversion continues, in Oakland, California, U.S., May 11,... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read moreCompaniesMay 11 (Reuters) - Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever testified on Monday that he spent about a year gathering evidence for the ChatGPT maker's board that CEO Sam Altman had displayed a "consistent pattern of lying."During his testimony in a legal fight between OpenAI and Elon Musk, the top AI researcher confirmed he had been thinking about taking action to remove Altman as CEO for at least one year prior to his November 2023 board vote to oust Altman. Sign up here.Sutskever said he had prepared a document gathering evidence of Altman's dishonesty at the request of OpenAI's board, and confirmed Altman's conduct included "undermining and pitting executives against one another." He said he had discussed removing Altman with then chief technology officer Mira Murati "for a long time."Sutskever had mentioned in a prior deposition that his document ran for 52 pages.Altman's conduct was "not conducive to any grand goal", including the creation of safe AGI, Sutskever said as he testified in a California courtroom.Sutskever had played a key role in Altman's dramatic firing and rehiring in November 2023 — at the time, Sutskever was on OpenAI's board and helped orchestrate Altman's firing, but later expressed regret over his "participation in the board's actions" and voted to reinstate Altman, who has since led the company and is now the central figure in OpenAI's fight against Musk.His testimony comes in the third week of a trial that could determine the future of OpenAI, which has been raising billions of dollars from investors to build out its computing power ahead of a potential trillion-dollar IPO.Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI who left the board in 2018, has accused the company and Altman of abandoning its nonprofit roots and becoming a for-profit company to enrich themselves. Musk is seeking $150 billion in damages from OpenAI and its backer Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab to be paid to the nonprofit, and for Altman and President Greg Brockman to be re...
Ilya Sutskever Reveals $7 Billion OpenAI Stake During Musk Trial
The revelation came during testimony in the ongoing lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against the AI company and its CEO, Sam Altman. Sutskever is the second co-founder to reveal a multi-billion dollar stake, following President Greg Brockman's $30 billion disclosure last week.
Ex-OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever claims to have collected proof of ...
Former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever testified on Monday that he spent about a year gathering evidence for the ChatGPT maker's board that CEO Sam Altman had displayed a "consistent ...
