Illia Polosukhin is the co-founder and CEO of NEAR Protocol, a layer-1 blockchain that has raised more than $500 million from investors including Tiger Global.
Before NEAR, he spent three years at Google, where he was one of eight authors on the 2017 paper “Attention Is All You Need,” the research behind the Transformer architecture that now underpins ChatGPT and most large language models. That combination, AI researcher and blockchain founder, puts him in a small group of people credibly building at the intersection of both industries in 2026.
Who Is Illia Polosukhin?
Polosukhin is Ukrainian, and according to his LinkedIn profile, he studied at the National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute” before moving into software engineering. He built a career in artificial intelligence research before blockchain entered the picture, eventually landing at Google, where he spent three years contributing to TensorFlow and working on search-related machine learning, according to CoinDesk.
That work culminated in “Attention Is All You Need,” the 2017 paper he co-wrote with seven Google colleagues. Polosukhin left Google the same year the paper was published. He and former colleague Alexander Skidanov founded NEAR.ai, an early attempt to have machines write code from natural-language instructions, before the project pivoted into blockchain infrastructure, a path that puts Polosukhin among the other founders and builders profiled on UTB’s crypto personalities page.
Illia Polosukhin’s Career and Contributions
Polosukhin and Skidanov founded what became NEAR Protocol in 2017, and the project launched its mainnet in 2020 as a sharded, proof-of-stake layer-1 blockchain built for scalability and everyday usability. NEAR has since raised more than $500 million from investors including Tiger Global, Three Arrows Capital, and Dragonfly Capital, according to CoinDesk’s coverage of the project’s 2022 funding rounds.
Polosukhin remains co-founder and CEO, and has steered NEAR through a second pivot, this time toward positioning the network as infrastructure for AI agents rather than human users alone. That shift became concrete in 2026. NEAR launched near.com, a consumer wallet and super app, on February 23, 2026, and introduced Confidential Intents, a privacy layer for cross-chain agent transactions, the following month, according to CoinDesk.
Polosukhin has also stayed active in AI research circles. In March 2024, he joined the other seven “Attention Is All You Need” co-authors on stage at Nvidia’s GTC conference to discuss the paper’s legacy, a rare public reunion of the group sometimes called the “Transformer 8.”
Illia Polosukhin’s Views and Positions
Polosukhin argues that the next major shift in both industries will come from AI systems, not people, transacting directly on blockchains. “The users of blockchain will be AI agents,” Polosukhin told CoinDesk in March 2026, framing artificial intelligence as the interface layer for the internet and blockchain as the settlement layer underneath it.
He has been openly critical of how the crypto industry has handled the AI narrative so far, pointing to speculative tokens and memecoins as a reputational problem that alienates serious AI researchers.
At the same time, he expects blockchain’s role to stay narrowly financial rather than expand into every corner of computing, since AI itself will handle the broader interface layer, in his view. He has described the shift as a multi-year process, and has said he is comfortable being publicly wrong for years if NEAR’s underlying technical bets eventually pay off.
Illia Polosukhin’s Net Worth in 2026
No verified personal net worth figure for Illia Polosukhin is publicly available as of 2026, according to Traders Union, which tracks crypto industry figures and states plainly that reliable net worth data for Polosukhin does not exist.
Several lower-profile crypto blogs have floated estimates as high as $2 billion, typically extrapolating from NEAR’s market capitalization and an assumed founder equity stake, but none of these figures trace back to a filing, an audited disclosure, or a statement from Polosukhin himself, and he has not addressed the number publicly.
Any specific dollar figure circulating online without a named, credible source should be treated as speculation. What is verifiable is NEAR’s own financial footprint: the protocol has raised more than $500 million in funding, according to CoinDesk. A token’s market capitalization does not by itself reveal a founder’s personal net worth, since that depends on the size and vesting schedule of Polosukhin’s personal token allocation, which is not publicly disclosed.
Illia Polosukhin in the News
On February 23, 2026, Polosukhin unveiled near.com, a consumer wallet and super app designed to let users manage crypto assets without directly handling gas fees, private keys, or chain-switching, according to CoinDesk. He described the launch as part of a broader shift toward what he calls the “agentic era,” a period in which AI systems increasingly act on users’ behalf rather than simply answering questions.
The product drew coverage as one of the more concrete steps by a major layer-1 blockchain to build specifically for AI-driven transaction volume. NEAR’s token price moved only modestly on the announcement, down nearly 3% in the 24 hours following the launch, according to CoinDesk’s reporting at the time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need a refresher on Illia Polosukhin? Here are the questions readers most often ask about him.
Who is Illia Polosukhin?
Illia Polosukhin is the Ukrainian co-founder and CEO of NEAR Protocol, a layer-1 blockchain he started in 2017 with Alexander Skidanov. Before NEAR, he spent three years at Google, where he co-authored the 2017 paper “Attention Is All You Need,” which introduced the Transformer architecture used in most modern AI models.
What is Illia Polosukhin’s net worth in 2026?
No verified net worth figure for Illia Polosukhin is publicly available as of 2026, according to Traders Union. Some crypto blogs estimate his wealth at up to $2 billion based on NEAR’s market capitalization, but this figure is not confirmed by any named, credible source.
What did Illia Polosukhin invent or create?
Polosukhin is best known for two things: co-authoring “Attention Is All You Need,” the 2017 paper that introduced the Transformer architecture behind large language models like ChatGPT, and co-founding NEAR Protocol, a blockchain that has raised more than $500 million in funding since 2017.
Is Illia Polosukhin really worth $2 billion?
There’s no confirmed source behind that figure. It appears to originate from crypto blogs estimating Polosukhin’s wealth off NEAR’s token market capitalization and an assumed founder stake, not from any filing, audit, or public statement by Polosukhin himself.
What is NEAR Protocol and why did Illia Polosukhin build it?
NEAR Protocol is a sharded, proof-of-stake layer-1 blockchain that launched its mainnet in 2020. Polosukhin and Skidanov originally built an AI tool called NEAR.ai, then pivoted to blockchain infrastructure after running into problems paying a global network of contractors through traditional banking.
Is Illia Polosukhin still involved with NEAR in 2026?
Polosukhin remains NEAR’s co-founder and CEO as of 2026, and has led the protocol’s pivot toward positioning itself as settlement infrastructure for AI agents, including the February 2026 launch of the near.com consumer app.
