Sam Altman

Sam Altman
Born	Samuel Harris Altman 22 04, 1985
Birthplace	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Template:Flatlist
Title	CEO of OpenAI
Known for	CEO of OpenAI, President of Y Combinator, Co-founder of Loopt
Education	Stanford University (dropped out)
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, the artificial intelligence research organization, since 2019. He first gained attention in the technology industry as the co-founder of Loopt, a geosocial networking mobile application, and later as president of Y Combinator, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent startup accelerators. Under Altman's leadership, OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, a product that became one of the fastest-growing consumer applications in history and a catalyst for a broader wave of commercial interest in artificial intelligence. In November 2023, Altman was briefly ousted as CEO by OpenAI's board of directors, only to be reinstated five days later following an outcry from employees and investors. Beyond his work at OpenAI, Altman has made substantial investments in areas including nuclear fusion energy and semiconductor manufacturing, and has served as chairman of both Helion Energy and Oklo, two clean energy companies. In 2025, he was recognized among the "Architects of AI" as part of Time magazine's Person of the Year designation.

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 showed an early interest in computers and technology; he received his first computer, a Macintosh, at the age of eight, and taught himself to code and disassemble computer hardware during his childhood.

Altman attended John Burroughs School, a private preparatory school in St. Louis. As a teenager, he became interested in both programming and entrepreneurship. He came out as gay during high school and has spoken publicly about the experience in subsequent years.

His upbringing in the Midwest and exposure to technology from a young age shaped what would become a persistent interest in the intersection of software, start-up culture, and large-scale societal challenges. By the time Altman reached college age, he was already oriented toward Silicon Valley and the start-up ecosystem that would define much of his career.

Education

Altman enrolled at Stanford University in Stanford, California, where he studied computer science. He attended for approximately two years before leaving to pursue entrepreneurial ventures full-time. While at Stanford, Altman began working on the idea that would become Loopt, his first major start-up. His decision to drop out of Stanford placed him in a tradition of prominent Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who left elite universities to build technology companies, though Altman himself has noted the risks of this path for most students.

Career

Loopt (2005–2012)

In 2005, at the age of 19, Altman co-founded Loopt, a location-based social networking mobile application. The company was part of the inaugural batch of Y Combinator, the start-up accelerator founded by Paul Graham. Loopt allowed users to share their real-time location with friends and discover nearby events and businesses, a concept that was novel in the early days of the smartphone era.

Under Altman's leadership as CEO, Loopt raised more than US$30 million in venture capital funding. The company operated for seven years but ultimately struggled to gain a large user base in an increasingly competitive market for location-based services. In March 2012, Loopt was acquired by the prepaid debit card company Green Dot Corporation in a deal valued at approximately US$43.4 million. Although the acquisition was not considered a major financial success relative to the amount of venture funding raised, the experience gave Altman significant insight into both the start-up lifecycle and the venture capital process.

Y Combinator (2011–2019)

Following Loopt's acquisition, Altman became increasingly involved with Y Combinator. In 2011, he began working with the accelerator as a part-time partner, advising early-stage start-ups and making investment decisions. Altman's involvement deepened rapidly, and in 2014, at the age of 28, he was appointed president of Y Combinator, succeeding Paul Graham.

As president, Altman oversaw a significant expansion of Y Combinator's operations. He increased the number of companies accepted into each batch and broadened the accelerator's focus to include areas such as biotech, hardware, and nonprofit ventures, in addition to its traditional emphasis on software start-ups. Altman also launched the YC Growth Fund, a later-stage investment vehicle, and the YC Continuity Fund, aimed at providing follow-on funding to the most successful Y Combinator alumni companies.

During his tenure, Y Combinator's portfolio grew to include hundreds of companies, and its influence in the broader start-up ecosystem expanded considerably. Altman became one of the most prominent voices in Silicon Valley during this period, publishing frequent blog posts on topics ranging from start-up strategy to nuclear energy and universal basic income.

A 2016 profile in The New Yorker described Altman's role at Y Combinator and his broader ambitions in the technology sector, noting his interest in existential risk, life extension, and the societal implications of artificial intelligence. Altman stepped down as president of Y Combinator in 2019 in order to focus full-time on OpenAI.

OpenAI (2019–present)

Founding and Early Involvement

OpenAI was founded in December 2015 as a nonprofit artificial intelligence research laboratory. Altman was among the co-founders, along with Elon Musk, Ilya Sutskever, Greg Brockman, and others. The organization was established with the stated mission of ensuring that artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. In 2019, Altman formally assumed the role of CEO of OpenAI, leaving Y Combinator to devote his full attention to the company.

Under Altman's leadership, OpenAI transitioned from a purely nonprofit entity to a "capped-profit" structure, a hybrid model designed to attract the large amounts of capital needed for cutting-edge AI research while nominally preserving the organization's mission-driven character. This transition attracted significant investment, most notably from Microsoft, which committed billions of dollars to the company.

Launch of ChatGPT

In November 2022, OpenAI released ChatGPT, a conversational AI system built on the company's GPT series of large language models. The product attracted over one million users within its first week of availability, making it one of the fastest-growing consumer technology products in history. The launch of ChatGPT was a catalytic event for the broader AI industry, triggering substantial increases in investment, competition, and public attention to large language models and generative AI.

Altman became a public face of the AI boom that followed. He testified before the United States Senate in May 2023, where he advocated for the regulation of AI systems and expressed concerns about the technology's potential for misuse. He also embarked on a global tour of meetings with heads of state and policymakers, discussing AI governance and the implications of advanced AI systems.

Board Crisis of November 2023

On November 17, 2023, OpenAI's board of directors abruptly removed Altman from his role as CEO. In a public statement, the board cited a loss of "confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI" but did not provide specific reasons for the decision. The move triggered an immediate and intense backlash. More than 700 of OpenAI's approximately 770 employees signed a letter threatening to resign and join Microsoft unless Altman was reinstated. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella publicly offered Altman a position at Microsoft, though negotiations continued in parallel for his return to OpenAI.

Five days after his removal, on November 22, 2023, Altman was reinstated as CEO. As part of the resolution, OpenAI's board was reconstituted, with several of the directors who had voted for Altman's ouster departing. The episode drew widespread media attention and raised questions about AI governance, the balance of power between nonprofit boards and commercial interests, and the concentration of influence within AI organizations.

Continued Leadership and AI Expansion

Following his reinstatement, Altman continued to lead OpenAI through a period of rapid growth and product development. The company released successive versions of its GPT models and expanded its product offerings to include image generation, voice interaction, and AI agent capabilities. In early 2026, OpenAI launched OpenClaw, a virtual AI agent system that attracted significant attention on Wall Street and raised questions about security and market stability.

Altman has continued to be an outspoken public figure on issues related to AI. In February 2026, speaking at the Express Adda event in New Delhi, Altman discussed the race toward artificial general intelligence, his rivalry with Elon Musk, the impact of AI on employment, and competition for talent in Silicon Valley. Around the same time, he told students at IIT Delhi that AI would "automate the whole economy" and urged students to stay current with AI tools.

Altman has also commented on a trend he describes as "AI-washing" of layoffs, in which companies attribute job cuts to artificial intelligence adoption when the underlying reasons may be different. In a February 2026 interview, he expressed skepticism that AI was the primary driver of all reported technology-sector layoffs.

Altman has compared the energy demands of AI training to the resource requirements of human development, noting that "training a human takes 20 years of food" in defense of the energy consumption associated with large-scale AI model training.

Investments and Other Ventures

Outside of OpenAI, Altman has been an active investor and board member in the energy sector. He has served as chairman of Helion Energy, a nuclear fusion start-up working to develop commercial fusion power, and Oklo, a company focused on compact nuclear fission reactors. In April 2025, Altman stepped down from his board positions at both companies.

Altman has expressed a longstanding interest in topics such as life extension, pandemic preparedness, and existential risk. A 2023 Business Insider article detailed his interest in pandemic and apocalypse preparedness, as well as life extension technologies.

He has also been involved in high-level discussions on global governance and technology policy. Altman attended the Bilderberg Meeting in 2022 and 2023, participating in sessions focused on artificial intelligence and its geopolitical implications.

Personal Life

Altman is openly gay, having come out during his teenage years while attending high school in St. Louis, Missouri. He has one child.

Altman has maintained a personal blog where he writes on topics including technology, start-ups, artificial intelligence, energy, and society. He has expressed interest in survivalism and preparedness, and has spoken publicly about preparations for potential catastrophic events, including pandemics and societal disruptions.

As of 2025, Altman's net worth was estimated at approximately US$2.1 billion by Forbes.

Recognition

Altman has received significant media attention and recognition over the course of his career. In 2016, The New Yorker published a detailed profile of Altman under the title "Sam Altman's Manifest Destiny," examining his role at Y Combinator and his ambitions for the future of technology.

Following the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, Altman became one of the most prominent figures in the global technology industry. He was profiled extensively by outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Business Insider.

In 2025, Time magazine named Altman among the "Architects of AI" as part of its annual Person of the Year designation, recognizing his central role in the development and commercialization of AI technology.

Altman has been a speaker and participant at major global forums, including the Bilderberg Meeting, where he joined discussions with world leaders and senior executives from technology companies on the implications of artificial intelligence.

Legacy

Altman's career has placed him at the center of several defining developments in early 21st-century technology. His leadership of Y Combinator during a period of significant expansion helped shape the accelerator model that has become standard in the start-up ecosystem. His transition from that role to leading OpenAI coincided with—and, to a degree, helped accelerate—the emergence of artificial intelligence as a dominant theme in global technology and investment.

The launch of ChatGPT under Altman's tenure at OpenAI marked a turning point in public awareness of generative AI and large language models. The product's rapid adoption prompted responses from competitors including Google, Meta, and numerous start-ups, and catalyzed a broader "AI boom" characterized by massive capital inflows, workforce changes, and regulatory scrutiny worldwide.

The November 2023 board crisis at OpenAI, in which Altman was removed and quickly reinstated, became a landmark event in the debate over corporate governance of AI organizations. It highlighted tensions between nonprofit governance structures and the commercial imperatives of companies at the frontier of AI research.

Altman's investments in fusion energy through Helion and nuclear fission through Oklo reflect a broader thesis—shared with some other technology executives—that the growth of AI will require a fundamental transformation in global energy infrastructure.

As AI technology continues to develop and its societal implications become more apparent, Altman's role as CEO of OpenAI positions him as a central figure in ongoing debates about the trajectory, governance, and impact of artificial intelligence.

References

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