Despite leading OpenAI, Sam Altman’s wealth primarily stems from investments in various tech companies, including Reddit, Airbnb, and Stripe.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has accumulated a fortune of $1.2 billion, according to Forbes.
However, his wealth is not derived from direct holdings in OpenAI, a company that focuses on expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
Rather, Altman’s fortune is primarily the result of strategic investments in other ventures.
Altman, at 39 years old, is one of the largest shareholders of Reddit, holding an 8.7% stake in the company.
He served on Reddit’s board of directors until 2022. Reddit’s market value stood at $35.9 billion as of January 2024, with its initial public offering (IPO) taking place in March of the same year.
In addition to Reddit, Altman has invested in several major companies, including Airbnb, Uber, Instacart, Asana, and DoorDash, according to The Motley Fool.
He also holds stakes in Stripe, a fintech company valued at approximately $70 billion as of November, and in Helion, a nuclear energy firm.
Before his full-time role at OpenAI, Altman was a partner at Y Combinator and served as its president from 2014 to 2019. He co-founded OpenAI in 2015 alongside
Elon Musk, initially as a non-profit research organization.
However, OpenAI transitioned to a hybrid model with both profit and non-profit goals in 2019. OpenAI’s generative AI model, ChatGPT, is projected to generate approximately $2.7 billion in revenue for the company in 2024. OpenAI’s valuation was estimated at $157 billion following a $6.6 billion fundraising round.