05/12/26 3:25pm Ilya Sutskever, a former OpenAI executive and co-founder, now has a roughly $7 billion stake in the company. Photo by Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images The relationship between Sam Altman and Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI co-founder and the company’s former chief scientist, has long been tumultuous. Once considered close collaborators, the pair split in 2023 when Sutskever orchestrated Altman’s brief ouster as CEO. He later reversed course and called for Altman’s reinstatement, a move he described as a “Hail Mary” during testimony yesterday (May 11) in the ongoing trial of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up “I felt that had I not done this, the company would be destroyed,” Sutskever said of his decision to backtrack on the coup. Altman, who was ultimately restored as OpenAI’s CEO, now faces allegations from another co-founder, Musk. The trial in Oakland, Calif., stems from Musk’s lawsuit claiming the company abandoned its original nonprofit mission in favor of profit-driven incentives. Closing arguments are expected later this week. Musk is seeking the removal of Altman and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, along with the transfer of up to $180 billion in damages from OpenAI’s for-profit arm to its nonprofit parent. Founded more than a decade ago by Altman, Musk and a group of researchers, OpenAI quickly identified Sutskever as a key early hire. At the time, he was working at Google but left the company—turning down a $6 million salary—to join the fledgling startup, he confirmed in testimony. Musk has since described Sutskever’s recruitment as “the linchpin” for OpenAI’s success. Born in Russia and raised in Israel, Sutskever later moved to Canada, where he studied under renowned A.I. researcher Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto. His work on AlexNet, a landmark neural network, helped him secure a role at Google in 2013. He stayed for two years before joining OpenAI as research director, eventually becoming chief scientist and a board member. Early on, Sutskever was close with both Altman and Brockman—he reportedly even officiated Brockman’s 2019 wedding. But tensions grew over time. During his testimony, Sutskever said that in the year leading up to the 2023 ouster, he began compiling evidence of what he saw as Altman’s dishonesty. Such behavior was “ not conducive to any grand goal