Sam Altman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sam Altman
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Altman in 2019
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Samuel Harris Altman
April 22, 1985 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
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| Education | Stanford University (dropped out) |
| Known for | Loopt, Y Combinator, OpenAI |
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Oliver Mulherin
(m. 2024) |
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Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American businessman and investor. He is best known as the chief executive officer of OpenAI, a company that creates AI tools. He has been the CEO since 2019, though he was briefly removed and then brought back in November 2023. Sam Altman also leads clean energy companies like Oklo Inc. and Helion Energy.
Many people see Altman as a key person in the recent growth of AI. He left Stanford University after two years to start his first company, Loopt. This was a mobile app for social networking. Later, he joined Y Combinator, a company that helps new businesses grow. He was its president from 2014 to 2019.
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Early Life and Education
Samuel Harris Altman was born on April 22, 1985, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. His mother is a skin doctor, and his father worked in real estate. Sam is the oldest of four children.
When he was eight years old, he got his first computer, an Apple Macintosh. He went to John Burroughs School, a private school in Ladue. In 2005, after studying computer science for two years at Stanford University, he decided to leave without finishing his degree.
Career Highlights
Starting Out in Business
In 2005, when Sam Altman was 19, he helped create Loopt. This mobile app let people share their location with friends. As the CEO, he raised over $30 million to help the company grow. This money came from investors who believed in his idea.
In March 2012, Loopt was bought by another company for $43.4 million. This happened because the app did not get many users.
In April 2012, Altman also started Hydrazine Capital with his brother, Jack Altman. This company invests in new technology businesses.
Helping Startups Grow with Y Combinator
In 2011, Altman became a partner at Y Combinator (YC). YC helps many different types of new companies get started. In February 2014, he became the president of YC.
In 2014, Altman said that all the companies YC had helped were worth over $65 billion. These included famous companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe. He wanted YC to help 1,000 new companies each year. He also wanted to support companies working on "hard technology," like advanced science or engineering.
In October 2015, Altman announced YC Continuity. This was a $700 million fund to invest more money in YC companies as they grew bigger. He also started Y Combinator Research, a non-profit research lab, and gave $10 million of his own money to it.
In March 2019, Altman stepped down as president of YC. He became chairman of the board instead, to focus more on his new project, OpenAI. By early 2020, he was no longer working with YC.
Creating OpenAI
In December 2015, Altman helped start OpenAI. This organization focuses on artificial intelligence research. He co-founded it with people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. Their goal was to create and develop AI that would benefit everyone. OpenAI first received $1 billion in funding from its founders and other investors, including Microsoft.
In March 2019, Altman left Y Combinator to work full-time as the CEO of OpenAI. By the summer of 2019, he helped raise another $1 billion from Microsoft.
On May 16, 2023, Altman spoke to the United States Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. He talked about how to manage and oversee AI. After the success of ChatGPT, OpenAI's popular chatbot, Altman traveled the world in May 2023. He visited 22 countries and met many leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Being Removed and Reinstated as OpenAI CEO
On November 17, 2023, the board of directors at OpenAI announced that they had removed Altman as CEO. They said he "was not consistently candid in his communications." Greg Brockman, a co-founder, also resigned from the board.
The next day, there were talks about bringing Altman back. On November 20, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Altman would join Microsoft to lead a new AI research team. However, two days later, most OpenAI employees signed a letter. They threatened to leave OpenAI and join Microsoft unless the board stepped down and brought Altman back as CEO. Even Ilya Sutskever, who had supported firing Altman, apologized and said he regretted his actions.
Late on November 20, OpenAI announced that Altman would return as CEO. The old board members resigned, except for Adam D'Angelo. On March 8, 2024, OpenAI announced that Altman would rejoin the board of directors.
In May 2024, a former board member, Helen Toner, explained why Altman was fired in November 2023. She said Altman had not shared important information, like details about the release of ChatGPT and his ownership in OpenAI's startup fund.
Other Projects
For eight days in 2014, Altman was the CEO of Reddit, a social media company. He stayed on Reddit's board until 2022. Altman also invested in Reddit several times. Before Reddit became a public company in 2024, Altman was its third-largest shareholder.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Altman helped fund Project Covalence. This project helped researchers quickly start medical studies. In March 2023, when Silicon Valley Bank had problems, Altman provided money to help many new companies.
Altman invests in many technology and nuclear energy companies. He is also the chairman of the board for Helion Energy, which works on nuclear fusion, and Oklo Inc., a nuclear fission company.
In March 2021, Altman co-founded a company called AltC Acquisition Corp. In May 2024, Oklo Inc. merged with this company to become a public company. Altman remained chairman of Oklo after the merger.
In March 2024, Altman appeared on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with an estimated net worth of $2 billion. This money mainly comes from his investments. He has investments in over 400 companies, worth about $2.8 billion. Some of these companies also do business with OpenAI. Altman and OpenAI say they manage these situations openly.
Personal Life
Altman has been a vegetarian since he was a child.
Altman married engineer Oliver Mulherin in January 2024, in Hawaii. They also live in San Francisco and often spend weekends in Napa, California. In May 2024, they promised to give away most of their wealth by signing the Giving Pledge.
Altman has said he prepares for emergencies. In 2016, he mentioned having "guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks... and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to."
Politics
Altman thought about running for governor of California in 2018 but decided not to. In 2018, he announced "the United Slate," a project to improve housing and healthcare in the U.S. In 2019, Altman held a fundraiser for presidential candidate Andrew Yang. In May 2020, Altman donated $250,000 to a group supporting Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Altman supports a land value tax and universal basic income (UBI). UBI is a system where everyone gets a regular payment from the government. In 2021, he wrote that he believes AI could generate enough money for everyone in the U.S. to receive $13,500 in UBI each year within ten years. In 2024, he suggested a new type of UBI called "universal basic compute." This would give everyone a "slice" of computing power from AI like ChatGPT.
On November 18, 2024, San Francisco Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie named Altman to his team that helps with the change of leadership. In December 2024, it was reported that Altman would donate $1 million to the fund for President Donald Trump's inauguration.
Images for kids
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Sam Altman's signature
See also
In Spanish: Sam Altman para niños
