Sam Altman

Sam Altman
Born	Samuel Harris Altman 22 04, 1985
Birthplace	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Template:Flatlist
Title	Chief Executive Officer of OpenAI
Known for	CEO of OpenAI, President of Y Combinator, Co-founder of Loopt
Education	Stanford University (attended, did not graduate)
Children	1
Awards	Time "Architects of AI" (Person of the Year, 2025)
Website	[[blog.samaltman.com blog.samaltman.com] Official site]

Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American businessman, entrepreneur, and investor who has served as the chief executive officer (CEO) of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research organization, since 2019. Under his leadership, OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, a product that became one of the fastest-growing consumer applications in history and helped catalyze a global wave of commercial interest in artificial intelligence. Before leading OpenAI, Altman co-founded Loopt, a geosocial networking startup, while still in his teens, and went on to serve as president of Y Combinator, one of Silicon Valley's most influential startup accelerators, from 2014 to 2019. In November 2023, Altman was briefly removed from his position at OpenAI by the organization's board of directors, only to be reinstated five days later following an outpouring of support from employees and investors. He has also served as chairman of clean energy companies Helion Energy and Oklo. In 2025, Altman was named among the "Architects of AI" for TimeTemplate:'s Person of the Year.

Early Life

Samuel Harris Altman was born on April 22, 1985, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was raised in a Jewish family. Altman developed an early interest in technology and computers. As profiled extensively in The New Yorker, Altman demonstrated entrepreneurial inclinations from a young age, gravitating toward programming and the possibilities afforded by the emerging internet era.

Altman received his first computer at the age of eight, an event that, by his own account, shaped the trajectory of his interests and ambitions. He attended John Burroughs School, a private preparatory school in St. Louis. During his high school years, he came out as gay, a fact he has discussed publicly in subsequent interviews and writings.

His upbringing in the Midwest, outside of the established technology corridors of Silicon Valley or the East Coast, informed what would become a career-long interest in the geographic decentralization of innovation and the belief that talented founders could emerge from anywhere. This perspective later influenced his work at Y Combinator, where he advocated for funding startups from a broad range of backgrounds and locations.

Education

Altman enrolled at Stanford University, where he studied computer science. He attended Stanford for two years before dropping out in 2005 to pursue entrepreneurial ventures full-time. His decision to leave Stanford placed him within a well-known Silicon Valley tradition of technology entrepreneurs who departed elite universities to launch startups, a path previously taken by figures such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. Altman has spoken publicly about the trade-offs of his decision, noting in interviews that while he valued his time at Stanford, the opportunity to build a company proved more compelling than completing a degree.

Career

Loopt (2005–2012)

After leaving Stanford in 2005, Altman co-founded Loopt, a location-based social networking application for smartphones. Loopt was among the first cohort of startups funded by Y Combinator, the seed-stage accelerator founded by Paul Graham. The company developed technology that allowed users to share their real-time locations with friends through their mobile phones, a concept that predated many of the geolocation features later incorporated into mainstream social media platforms.

Loopt raised more than US$30 million in venture capital over the course of its operation. The company attracted attention both for its technology and for Altman's youth — he was only 19 when he founded it. Despite its early promise, Loopt struggled to achieve widespread consumer adoption in a competitive and rapidly evolving mobile landscape. In March 2012, Loopt was acquired by the prepaid debit card company Green Dot Corporation in a deal reported to be worth approximately $43.4 million. The acquisition was generally regarded as a modest outcome given the capital the company had raised, though the experience provided Altman with substantial operational and fundraising knowledge that would prove useful in his subsequent career.

Y Combinator (2011–2019)

In 2011, Altman joined Y Combinator as a part-time partner. His involvement deepened over the following years, and in 2014, he was appointed president of Y Combinator, succeeding the organization's co-founder, Paul Graham.

As president, Altman oversaw a significant expansion of Y Combinator's activities. He increased the size of its biannual cohorts of startups, broadened the types of companies the accelerator funded, and established new programs, including the YC Growth Fund and YC Continuity, which allowed Y Combinator to invest in later-stage companies alongside its traditional seed-stage funding. Under Altman's tenure, Y Combinator solidified its position as one of the most prominent and influential startup accelerators in the world, funding companies across sectors including technology, biotech, hardware, and nonprofit ventures.

Altman also used his position to advocate for issues he considered important to the technology ecosystem, including universal basic income, nuclear energy, and preparing for pandemic risks. A 2016 profile in The New Yorker described his broad range of interests and his efforts to position Y Combinator as more than a conventional accelerator, extending into policy and research areas.

A Business Insider profile noted that Altman had a long-standing interest in existential risks, including pandemics and questions related to life extension and human mortality, subjects he discussed openly and that influenced his thinking about the societal implications of advanced technology.

Altman stepped down from his role as president of Y Combinator in 2019 to devote his full attention to OpenAI.

OpenAI (2019–present)

Founding and Early Involvement

OpenAI was founded in December 2015 as a nonprofit artificial intelligence research laboratory. The organization's stated mission was to ensure that artificial general intelligence (AGI) would benefit humanity broadly. Altman was among the co-founders and early backers of the initiative. In 2019, he assumed the role of CEO, transitioning from his position at Y Combinator to lead the organization full-time.

Under Altman's leadership, OpenAI underwent a significant structural transformation. The organization created a "capped-profit" subsidiary in 2019, designed to attract the large amounts of capital needed to fund advanced AI research while maintaining alignment with the nonprofit's mission. This structure allowed OpenAI to secure a major investment from Microsoft, which became its largest financial backer and cloud computing partner.

Launch of ChatGPT and the AI Boom

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a conversational AI chatbot built on the company's GPT-3.5 large language model. The product attracted an estimated 100 million users within its first two months, making it one of the fastest-growing consumer applications ever launched. ChatGPT's release is credited with catalyzing widespread public and commercial interest in generative AI, a phenomenon that has been referred to as the "AI boom."

Following the launch, Altman became one of the most prominent public figures in the technology industry. He embarked on a global tour in 2023, meeting with heads of state, policymakers, and technology communities in dozens of countries to discuss the implications of AI and advocate for international regulatory frameworks. He testified before the United States Senate in May 2023, calling for the regulation of AI systems and proposing the creation of a licensing agency for advanced AI models.

As of February 2026, Altman has continued to serve as the public face of OpenAI and has made extensive public statements about the trajectory of AI development. In a visit to IIT Delhi, he stated that AI would "automate the whole economy" and advised students to remain current with AI tools as the technology continued to advance. During an appearance at the Express Adda event in New Delhi, Altman discussed topics including the race toward AGI, his rivalry with Elon Musk, concerns about job losses, and competition for talent in Silicon Valley.

Altman has also publicly commented on the trend of technology companies citing AI as a reason for workforce reductions. In February 2026, he suggested that some companies were "AI-washing" their layoffs — using artificial intelligence as a justification for job cuts that may have been planned for other reasons. He separately compared the energy consumption of AI training to human development, arguing that "training a human takes 20 years of food" and that discussions about the power requirements of AI systems should be viewed in that broader context.

November 2023 Ouster and Reinstatement

On November 17, 2023, OpenAI's board of directors announced that it had removed Altman as CEO. In a public statement, the board said it had lost "confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI." The announcement did not specify the precise reasons for the decision and was met with immediate and widespread shock across the technology industry.

In the days following the announcement, the majority of OpenAI's employees — reported to be more than 700 of approximately 770 staff members — signed an open letter threatening to resign unless Altman was reinstated and the board reformed. Microsoft, OpenAI's largest investor, also publicly expressed support for Altman, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella initially announced that Altman would join Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research unit. However, negotiations between the parties continued, and on November 22, 2023, five days after his removal, OpenAI announced that Altman would return as CEO. As part of the resolution, the organization formed a new board of directors, replacing the members who had voted to remove him.

The episode drew intense media attention and raised questions about the governance structures of nonprofit-controlled AI organizations, the relationship between OpenAI's mission and its commercial operations, and the concentration of influence in the hands of a small number of individuals in the AI sector.

OpenClaw and Market Impact

In February 2026, OpenAI's virtual AI agent system, OpenClaw, became a subject of significant public discussion. The system, which is designed to perform complex autonomous tasks, was reported to have contributed to a $2 trillion sell-off in software stocks on Wall Street, raising questions about the security implications of advanced AI agents and their potential to disrupt existing technology markets.

Energy Investments: Helion Energy and Oklo

Beyond his work in artificial intelligence, Altman has made substantial personal investments in nuclear and fusion energy companies. He has served as chairman of Helion Energy, a fusion power startup that aims to build commercial fusion reactors, and Oklo, a company developing small modular fission reactors. In February 2026, Forbes reported that Altman's investment in Helion Energy was "getting hotter than the sun," as the company moved closer to commercialization of its fusion technology.

Altman has framed his interest in energy as closely connected to the demands of AI. As AI models become larger and require more computational resources, the energy infrastructure needed to power them has become a significant practical and political issue. Altman has argued that breakthroughs in fusion and advanced nuclear energy are essential to supporting the long-term growth of AI while mitigating environmental impact. He stepped down from his chairmanship roles at both Helion Energy and Oklo in April 2025.

Personal Life

Altman is openly gay, a fact he has discussed in multiple public interviews and in writing. In a 2014 interview with Esquire, he spoke about his experience as a gay man in the technology industry. He has one child.

Altman has written publicly about topics including survivalism and existential risk preparedness. A Business Insider profile noted his interest in scenarios involving pandemics and civilizational collapse, subjects that he has discussed with characteristic directness.

He maintains a personal blog at blog.samaltman.com, where he publishes essays on technology, startups, and societal issues.

Altman has attended the Bilderberg Meeting, an annual private conference of political leaders, business executives, and academics. He was listed as a participant at the 2022 meeting. In 2023, he attended the Bilderberg Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, where artificial intelligence was among the topics discussed.

Recognition

Altman has received significant public attention and recognition for his role in the development and commercialization of artificial intelligence. In 2025, Time magazine named him among the "Architects of AI" as part of its Person of the Year designation, reflecting his centrality to the global AI industry.

The New Yorker profiled him extensively in a 2016 feature titled "Sam Altman's Manifest Destiny," which examined his ambitions, his leadership of Y Combinator, and his broader vision for technology and society. Major profiles have also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Business Insider, Esquire, and Entrepreneur, among others.

A February 2026 article in The New York Times examined the public's mixed response to the AI boom, noting that tech leaders including Altman have begun to grapple with what the article described as "the public's underwhelming enthusiasm for their plans to remake the world with artificial intelligence."

His net worth has been estimated at approximately US$2.1 billion by Forbes.

Legacy

As of 2026, Altman's legacy is closely tied to the development and proliferation of large language models and generative AI systems. The release of ChatGPT under his leadership at OpenAI is credited with transforming AI from a primarily academic and industrial concern into a mainstream consumer technology, prompting a global reexamination of education, employment, intellectual property, and national security policies.

His career trajectory — from a teenage startup founder, to the head of one of Silicon Valley's most important accelerators, to the CEO of the organization at the center of the AI industry — has made him one of the most prominent figures in the early 21st-century technology sector. His November 2023 ouster and rapid reinstatement at OpenAI became a defining episode in the broader debate about AI governance, the balance between commercial imperatives and safety concerns, and the power dynamics within the organizations developing the most advanced AI systems.

Altman's investments in fusion and nuclear energy through Helion Energy and Oklo reflect a broader thesis that the future of AI is inseparable from the future of energy production, a position that has gained increasing attention as the computational demands of AI training and inference have grown.

His public commentary on the societal implications of AI — from labor market displacement to the potential for AGI — has positioned him as a central, if sometimes controversial, voice in ongoing debates about the trajectory of the technology. Whether OpenAI's stated mission to ensure AGI benefits all of humanity will be realized remains an open question, and Altman's leadership of the organization continues to be the subject of significant scrutiny from technologists, policymakers, and the public.

References

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