OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is estimated to be worth $500 million. This net worth is primarily due to the early-stage investments he has made in companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, and Pinterest. Even though OpenAI is valued at around $29 billion, Mr Altman does not hold an equity stake in the artificial intelligence firm. This was confirmed when he was asked by US Senator John Kennedy if he was making a lot of money at OpenAI and he replied with “No. I’m paid enough for health insurance and have no equity in OpenAI. I’m doing this because I love it”.
OpenAI was founded in 2015 by Altman, alongside Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Reid Hoffman. However, Musk left the company shortly after in 2018 because he could no longer agree to the plans of the company. OpenAI marked their debut to the public in December with the infamous ChatGPT which answers user’s questions using online materials. This has, however, caused worrying regarding the potential of misinformation and also less opportunities for new jobs.
Microsft recently decided to invest in OpenAI, providing the company with a multi-year $10 billion investment. On top of that, the tech giant has also invested a considerable amount of money in OpenAI in 2019 and 2021. This investment is meant to push the boundaries of Artificial Intelligence to a new level, while ensuring that its outcomes will be shared with the rest of the world.
Sam Altman first found success when he co-founded Loopt – a location-based social networking app – in his late teens. Although it failed to gain traction, it was still bought by Green Dot Corporation for around $43.4 million in 2012. He has since invested in over 82 companies, the most recent one being the Series A funding round for campus.edu which raised $29 million with him and Discord’s Jason Citron as leading investors.
