Justin Sun launches prize and awards OpenAI $1M for Navier–Stokes proof

4 min

Geneva, Switzerland — September 16, 2026 — The Office of Justin Sun announced the Justin Sun Prize, a zero-trust, decentralized academic bounty system tied to a public “problem list.” Awards are based on breakthroughs in fundamental disciplines and machine-verified formal proofs, with a top prize of up to US$1 million per problem. The initiative targets scientific rewards in the AI era and aims to accelerate fundamental research via human–AI collaboration.

First laureates and headline result

The inaugural winners span solutions and formalizations for 66 mathematical problems. The top US$1 million prize went to an OpenAI research team for a solution and Lean-verified proof of Existence and Smoothness for the 3D Navier–Stokes equations. OpenAI states its internal model produced the proof and that GPT‑6 Astra completed the Lean formalization and verification.

The Navier–Stokes Existence and Smoothness problem, a Millennium Prize Problem since 2000 with a US$1 million reward from the Clay Mathematics Institute, concerns the behavior of fluid motion described by the N–S equations developed in the 19th century.

Mechanism and scope

The prize removes nominations and credential filters and does not follow cyclical or lifetime-achievement timelines. Awards are tied to specific problems and machine-verifiable proofs. The first to meet criteria receives the prize. The repository of problems and formalized code is public and continuously updated. Once listed, a problem remains listed; awarded funds are never clawed back.

The current list includes: formal verification related to the Poincaré Conjecture, the Riemann Hypothesis, Goldbach’s Conjecture, and many problems associated with Paul Erdős.

Governance, transparency, and funding

Principles: openness, public benefit, and open source. Eligibility: no restrictions by nationality, institution, identity, or whether the contributor is human or AI. Public assets: problem list, confirmation standards, proofs, and verification materials on GitHub. Disbursements are recorded on-chain for permanent traceability and immutability. Prizes are paid in USDT on TRON (TRC-20) or USDC on Ethereum (ERC-20) at the recipient’s choice.

Recognition and symbolism

Winners receive a certificate and a medal. The medal’s edge reads: “Quod probatur, solvitur,” translated as “Proved, then paid.”

Context on Justin Sun and philanthropy

Public records attribute more than US$45 million in donations by Justin Sun across technology, environmental protection, and disaster relief. The Justin Sun Prize is positioned as a central philanthropic focus to support fundamental science via an open and verifiable model.

About the Office of Justin Sun

The Office of Justin Sun supports initiatives spanning technology, blockchain, AI, scientific research, investment, art, and space exploration. Justin Sun is the Ambassador and former Permanent Representative of Grenada to the WTO and Founder of TRON. TRON reports over US$13 trillion processed since inception and widespread use of USDT on TRON in emerging markets.

Sun has been profiled by Forbes, listed multiple times on Forbes 30 Under 30, and flew on Blue Origin’s NS-34 mission in August 2025 as the 712th person to reach space.

About the Justin Sun Prize

The Justin Sun Prize supports advances in mathematics, formal verification, and AI-assisted discovery. Evaluation centers on proof strength, rigor, and verifiability rather than submitter prestige. The prize links defined mathematical challenges to machine-verifiable proofs and adheres to openness, public benefit, and open-source access.