Sam Altman

Sam Altman
Born	Samuel Harris Altman (1985-04-22) April 22, 1985 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Business leader, investor, CEO of OpenAI
Years active	2005–present
Known for	CEO of OpenAI, former president of Y Combinator, founder of Loopt

Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American business leader, investor, and has served as the CEO of OpenAI since 2019, with a brief removal followed by reinstatement in November 2023. He is recognized as a prominent personality in the AI boom.

After studying at Stanford University for two years, Altman left without completing his degree and founded Loopt, a mobile social networking service, securing over $30 million in venture capital. In 2011, he became involved with Y Combinator, a startup accelerator, eventually leading it as president from 2014 until 2019. He has also held chairmanship roles at clean energy firms Helion Energy and Oklo (until April 2025). As of July 2025, Altman’s net worth was estimated at $1.8 billion.

Early life and education

Born on April 22, 1985, in Chicago, Illinois, Altman was raised in a Jewish household in St. Louis, Missouri. His mother worked as a dermatologist while his father was engaged in real estate brokerage. Being the oldest among four children, he received an Apple Macintosh computer at age eight, which sparked his interest in programming and hardware exploration. He attended the private John Burroughs School located in Ladue. In 2005, after two years pursuing computer science studies at Stanford University, he left the institution without obtaining a degree.

Early career

At just 19 years old in 2005, Altman co-founded Loopt, a mobile application focused on location-based social networking. As CEO, he successfully raised over $30 million from venture capitalists, including $5 million from Patrick Chung of Xfund and New Enterprise Associates, with additional backing from Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator. Despite limited user growth, Loopt was acquired by Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million in March 2012.

Y Combinator

Altman joined Y Combinator (YC) as a part-time partner in 2011 and was appointed president in February 2014. During his tenure, YC-backed startups collectively reached valuations surpassing $65 billion, including major companies such as Airbnb, Dropbox, Zenefits, and Stripe. He set ambitious goals to fund 1,000 new startups annually and broadened YC’s scope to incorporate "hard technology" ventures.

In October 2015, Altman invested $10 million to establish Y Combinator Research and unveiled YC Continuity, a $700 million fund designed to support later-stage YC companies. By September 2016, he became president of YC Group, managing Y Combinator alongside its subsidiaries.

March 2019 marked Altman’s resignation as YC president to dedicate himself fully to OpenAI while maintaining a less active role as board chairman. This change coincided with YC relocating its headquarters to San Francisco. By early 2020, he had completely stepped away from YC operations. It later emerged that his board chair title was neither approved by YC partners nor accurately reflected in SEC disclosures.

Other investments

In April 2012, Altman co-established Hydrazine Capital with his brother Jack Altman. This venture capital firm continues to invest primarily in early-stage technology companies.

Altman’s investment portfolio features shares in Humane, which develops AI-enabled wearable technology; Retro Biosciences, focused on extending human lifespan by a decade; Boom Technology, creator of supersonic commercial aircraft; Cruise, an autonomous vehicle company acquired by General Motors; and Helion Energy, specializing in fusion energy research.

In 2019, Altman co-founded Tools For Humanity, which designs biometric systems that scan users’ eyes for identity verification and fraud prevention purposes. Participants who consent to eye scans are rewarded with the cryptocurrency Worldcoin, envisioned as a form of universal basic income. Tools For Humanity currently refrains from operating within the United States due to concerns surrounding privacy and fraud. Initial rollouts took place in Kenya but faced regulatory scrutiny and suspensions across France, the UK, Bavaria, South Korea, Kenya again, Spain, Portugal, and Hong Kong owing to issues related to biometric data protection and fraud risks.

OpenAI

OpenAI was originally financed by a group of investors including Altman, Greg Brockman, Elon Musk, Jessica Livingston, Peter Thiel, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Infosys, and YCResearch, collectively raising $1 billion at its inception in 2015. In March 2019, Altman stepped down from his role at Y Combinator to dedicate himself full-time as OpenAI’s CEO. By mid-2019, he successfully secured an additional $1 billion investment from Microsoft.

On May 16, 2023, Altman appeared before the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law to discuss regulatory oversight concerning artificial intelligence. Following the widespread acclaim of OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, Altman embarked on a global diplomatic tour in May 2023. During this trip, he met with prominent world leaders such as British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others, to deliberate on AI’s implications and strategic direction.

Removal and Reinstatement as OpenAI CEO

On November 17, 2023, OpenAI’s board members—including researcher Helen Toner, Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, AI governance advocate Tasha McCauley, and notably co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever—voted to dismiss Sam Altman from his CEO position and removed Greg Brockman from the board. The decision was attributed to concerns over Altman’s inconsistent transparency. In response, Brockman resigned from his role as President. The following day, reports surfaced indicating ongoing discussions between Altman and the board regarding his potential reinstatement.

On November 20, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Altman would spearhead a new advanced AI research division within Microsoft. Two days after this announcement, more than 700 of OpenAI’s approximately 770 employees signed a letter threatening to defect to Microsoft unless the entire board resigned and Altman was restored as CEO. This group included Sutskever, who issued an apology for previously endorsing Altman’s removal. Later that evening, OpenAI declared an agreement to reinstate Altman as CEO and Brockman as President, with all board members except D'Angelo stepping down.

Following a review conducted by the law firm WilmerHale, OpenAI confirmed on March 8, 2024, that Altman would rejoin its board of directors.

In May 2024, revelations about OpenAI’s non-disparagement agreements led to allegations that Altman had misled staff regarding equity cancellation clauses linked to these agreements. Former board member Helen Toner explained the grounds for Altman’s termination, highlighting withheld information about ChatGPT’s launch and his stake in OpenAI’s startup fund. She also cited reports from two executives accusing Altman of psychological abuse and mentioned employee concerns about potential retaliation. Additionally, Toner referenced incidents during Altman’s tenure as CEO of Loopt where management twice attempted to remove him due to “deceptive and chaotic behavior.”

Political involvement

Altman contemplated a gubernatorial bid for California in 2018 but ultimately decided against entering the race. That same year, he initiated "the United Slate," a campaign focused on enhancing housing and healthcare policies across the United States. In 2019, he organized a fundraising event supporting Andrew Yang, a tech entrepreneur and Democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential election. By May 2020, Altman contributed $250,000 to American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC backing Joe Biden’s campaign.

He is an advocate for land value taxation and supports universal basic income (UBI). In 2021, Altman suggested that artificial intelligence could create sufficient economic value within ten years to finance a UBI of $13,500 per adult annually in the U.S. In 2024, he introduced the idea of "universal basic compute," which would provide universal access to ChatGPT’s computational resources.

In 2023, Altman endorsed Representative Dean Phillips in his primary challenge against President Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination. On November 18, 2024, he was appointed to the transition team of San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie. The following month, Altman pledged $1 million toward President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Fund.

Altman also hosted a fundraising event in March 2025 for Senator Mark Warner, who was campaigning for re-election in Virginia as a Democrat. On July 4, 2025, he described his political ideology as "techno-capitalism" and expressed feeling "politically homeless," criticizing the Democratic Party for insufficient support of innovation and entrepreneurial ventures.

Additional pursuits

In 2014, Altman briefly assumed the role of CEO at Reddit for eight days following the departure of CEO Yishan Wong. On July 10, 2015, he announced the reinstatement of co-founder Steve Huffman as Reddit’s CEO. Altman continued serving on Reddit’s board until 2022 and participated in several investment rounds (2014, 2015, and 2021). Prior to Reddit’s 2024 initial public offering, he was its third-largest shareholder with approximately nine percent ownership.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Altman contributed funding to Project Covalence to expedite clinical trials in collaboration with TrialSpark. When the Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March 2023, he provided financial support to numerous startups. His investment portfolio spans technology ventures and nuclear energy enterprises such as Airbnb, Stripe, and Retro Biosciences. He holds chairmanship positions on the boards of nuclear fusion firm Helion Energy and nuclear fission company Oklo Inc.. Additionally, Altman invested in solar energy startup Exowatt, which focuses on delivering clean power solutions for data centers.

In March 2021, Altman co-founded and took on the CEO role at AltC Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). In May 2024, Oklo merged with AltC to become publicly traded; Altman remained chairman of Oklo until April 2025 when he resigned to "avoid conflict of interest" and enable future collaborations between OpenAI and Oklo.

Altman made his debut on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in March 2024 with an estimated net worth of $2 billion, largely derived from venture capital funds affiliated with Hydrazine Capital. As of June 2024, his holdings include stakes in over 400 companies valued collectively around $2.8 billion. Some investments overlap with OpenAI partners, raising potential conflict-of-interest issues; however, OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor has confirmed Altman’s transparency regarding these matters.

Together with Peter Thiel, Altman was an early seed investor in longevity-focused biotech company Minicircle. He also backed charter city projects Próspera and Praxis, both receiving additional financing from former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan. These initiatives are linked to the Network State movement.

Reception

In 2017, Altman was honored with an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree by the University of Waterloo in recognition of his contributions to companies participating in its Velocity entrepreneurship initiative. September 2023 saw the government of Indonesia bestow upon him the nation's inaugural "golden visa." The following year, in 2024, Xfund presented Altman with its prestigious Experiment Cup during a ceremony held at Harvard University.

Altman earned a spot among the 100 most influential global figures in 2023, also receiving Time magazine's accolade as CEO of the Year. He featured on Time's list highlighting the 100 most impactful individuals in artificial intelligence for both 2023 and 2024. His earlier distinctions include being recognized by Businessweek in 2008 as one of the "Best Young Entrepreneurs in Technology" and being named a top investor under 30 by Forbes in 2015. He participated in the Bilderberg Meeting across three occasions: 2016, 2022, and 2023.

According to Walter Isaacson, Altman exhibits a "Musk-like intensity," a trait instrumental in co-founding OpenAI alongside Elon Musk. In February 2024, Musk initiated legal action against OpenAI and Altman, accusing them of breaching their founding agreement by prioritizing profit over humanity’s welfare. OpenAI’s leadership refuted these allegations, noting Musk contributed only $45 million out of a promised $1 billion and had proposed integrating OpenAI with Tesla.

Personal life

Altman has adhered to a vegetarian lifestyle since his youth.

He is openly gay, having revealed his sexual orientation at age 17 during high school after defending a speaker on National Coming Out Day. He was in a relationship with Loopt co-founder Nick Sivo for nine years until shortly after Loopt was acquired in 2012.

In January 2024, Altman wed engineer Oliver Mulherin at their estate in Hawaii. The couple maintains residences in San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood and often spends weekends in Napa, California. In May 2024, they committed to donating the majority of their fortune by joining the Giving Pledge.

Known for preparing for potential catastrophic events, Altman possesses survival gear such as firearms, gold reserves, potassium iodide tablets, gas masks, and owns land in Big Sur intended as a sanctuary.

In January 2025, Altman’s sister Ann filed a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse dating back to their childhood years. Altman, along with his mother and brothers, issued a collective statement categorically denying these claims as "utterly untrue."

Altman welcomed his son on February 22, 2025.

External links

• Personal website