Sam Altman, the head of the world’s most influential generative artificial intelligence company, may make about the same salary as the average American ($65,000), but his real money comes from a side hustle.
Altman has personal investments in hundreds of startups, with a total net worth of at least $2.8 billion. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
Altman is One of Reddit’s first investors Airbnb also went public and has since become a huge success on the stock market.Airbnb goes publicIn fact, Altman is widely considered one of the most successful IPOs in history: He was also an early investor in fintech company Stripe, which is now valued at $65 billion, making it one of the most valuable startups in the U.S. behind SpaceX and Altman’s own OpenAI.
The Wall Street Journal investigation raised questions about whether Altman had conflicts of interest between his personal investments and the OpenAI deal that would give him huge profits. For example, Reddit recently signed a licensing agreement with OpenAIThe value of the deal is still unknown, but it was enough to send Reddit’s shares soaring 13%. OpenAI is also in talks with nuclear energy startup Helion, in which Altman is also a major investor.
Brett Taylor, chairman of OpenAI’s board of directors, told The Wall Street Journal that Altman has “consistently toed the line and been transparent about his investments.” Altman was briefly banned from OpenAI. End of 2023 “Was not consistently forthright” in communicating with the boardHis lack of transparency included failing to disclose his ownership of OpenAI’s startup fund to the company’s board, “even though he always maintained that he was an independent director with no financial interest in the company.” Helen Toner, former OpenAI board member, said: meanwhile He spoke about the tragedy on a recent podcast..
But the board appears to have confidence in Altman, despite numerous potential conflicts of interest highlighted by the Wall Street Journal. “Sam is fully focused on his role as CEO. We are carefully managing any potential conflicts of interest and will always put OpenAI and our mission first,” Taylor told the outlet. “Our fully independent audit committee will review all potential conflicts of interest involving our directors and officers to ensure the best outcome for OpenAI.”
