1. Samuel Harris Altman was born on April 22,1985 and is an American technology entrepreneur and investor best known as the chief executive officer of OpenAI since 2019.
47 Facts About Sam Altman
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Sam Altman is the chairman of clean energy companies Oklo Inc and Helion Energy.
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Sam Altman dropped out of Stanford University after two years and founded Loopt, a mobile social networking service, raising more than $30million in venture capital.
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In 2011, Sam Altman joined Y Combinator, a startup accelerator, and was its president from 2014 to 2019.
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Sam Altman was born on April 22,1985, in Chicago, Illinois, into a Jewish family, and grew up in St Louis, Missouri.
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Sam Altman's mother is a dermatologist, and his father was a real estate broker.
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Sam Altman attended John Burroughs School, a private school in Ladue, Missouri.
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In 2005, at the age of 19, Sam Altman co-founded Loopt, a location-based social networking mobile application.
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In 2011, Sam Altman became a partner at Y Combinator, a startup accelerator that invests in a wide range of startups, initially working on a part-time basis.
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Sam Altman aimed to expand YC to fund 1,000 new companies per year and sought to broaden the types of companies funded, particularly focusing on "hard technology" startups.
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In October 2015, Sam Altman announced YC Continuity, a $700 million equity fund designed to invest in YC companies as they matured.
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In December 2015, Sam Altman co-founded OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research organization, alongside notable figures such as Elon Musk, Jessica Livingston, and Peter Thiel.
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In September 2016, Sam Altman announced his expanded role as president of YC Group, which included Y Combinator and other units.
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In 2019, Sam Altman co-founded the for-profit company Tools For Humanity, which builds and distributes systems designed to scan people's eyes to provide authentication and verify proof of personhood to counter fraud.
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Sam Altman has several other investments in companies including Humane, which was developing a wearable AI-powered device; Retro Biosciences, a research company aiming to extend human life by 10 years; Boom Technology, a supersonic airline developer; Cruise, a self-driving car company that was acquired by General Motors; and Helion Energy, an American fusion research company.
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In March 2019, Sam Altman left Y Combinator to focus full-time on OpenAI as CEO.
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Sam Altman testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law on May 16,2023, about issues of AI oversight.
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Sam Altman stood for a photo with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
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The announcement cited that Sam Altman "was not consistently candid in his communications" in a public announcement on the OpenAI blog.
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The day after Sam Altman was removed, The Verge reported that Sam Altman and the board were in talks to bring him back to OpenAI.
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On March 8,2024, OpenAI announced that Sam Altman would rejoin the board of directors after a review by law firm WilmerHale.
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In May 2024, after OpenAI's non-disparagement agreements were exposed, Sam Altman was accused of lying when claiming to have been unaware of the equity cancellation provision for departing employees that don't sign the agreement.
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Sam Altman stated that Altman had withheld information, for example about the release of ChatGPT and his ownership of OpenAI's startup fund.
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Sam Altman alleged that two executives in OpenAI had reported to the board "psychological abuse" from Altman, and provided screenshots and documentation to support their claims.
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Sam Altman said that many employees feared retaliation if they didn't support Altman, and that when Altman was Loopt's CEO, the management team asked twice to fire him for what they called "deceptive and chaotic behavior".
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For eight days in 2014, Sam Altman was the CEO of Reddit, a social media company, after CEO Yishan Wong resigned.
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Sam Altman announced the return of Steve Huffman as CEO on July 10,2015.
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Sam Altman invested in multiple rounds of funding Reddit, in 2014,2015, and 2021.
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Sam Altman is chairman of the board for Helion Energy, a company focused on developing nuclear fusion, and Oklo Inc.
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In 2017, Sam Altman received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada for supporting companies through its Velocity entrepreneurship program.
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In 2023, Sam Altman was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world and CEO of the Year by Time magazine.
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Sam Altman was on the Time's list of the 100 most influential people in AI in 2023 and in 2024.
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Sam Altman was one of the "Best Young Entrepreneurs in Technology" by Businessweek in 2008, and the top investor under 30 by Forbes magazine in 2015.
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Sam Altman was invited to attend the Bilderberg Meeting in 2016,2022, and 2023.
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Walter Isaacson opined that Sam Altman had "Musk-like intensity" and that it had been instrumental in the founding of OpenAI in partnership with Elon Musk.
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In late February 2024 Musk sued OpenAI and Sam Altman, alleging they broke the company's founding agreement by giving priority to profit over benefit to humanity.
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Sam Altman dated Loopt co-founder Nick Sivo for nine years.
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Sam Altman married engineer Oliver Mulherin in January 2024, at their estate in Hawaii; the pair live in San Francisco's Russian Hill neighborhood and often spend weekends in Napa, California.
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On February 22,2025, Sam Altman announced the birth of his son.
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Sam Altman had contemplated running for governor of California in the 2018 election, but later decided not to enter.
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In 2018, Sam Altman announced "the United Slate", a political project to improve US housing and healthcare policy.
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In 2019, Sam Altman held a fundraiser at his home in San Francisco for 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and fellow tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
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In May 2020, Sam Altman donated $250,000 to American Bridge 21st Century, a super PAC supporting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
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Sam Altman is a supporter of land value taxation and the payment of universal basic income.
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In 2023, Sam Altman was involved in boosting Representative Dean Phillips as he prepared a challenge to President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.
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In December 2024, it was reported that Sam Altman would donate $1 million to the Inaugural Fund for President Donald Trump.
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Sam Altman is set to host a fundraiser in San Francisco on March 20,2025, for Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat up for re-election in 2026 in Virginia.