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Person

Sam Altman

Website:

https://blog.samaltman.com/
Nationality:

American
Occupation:

Co-Founder and CEO of OpenAI

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Sam Altman is a technology entrepreneur and the co-founder of artificial intelligence (AI) firm OpenAI, known for its flagship product ChatGPT. As of 2025, he was the CEO of the firm. 1

In November 2023, Sam Altman was dismissed as CEO by the OpenAI board of directors after it conducted a “deliberative review process” that determined “he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.” Several days later, Altman returned as CEO of OpenAI and a majority of the directors were dismissed. 2 3 4 5 6

OpenAI

Sam Altman is a co-founder of artificial intelligence firm OpenAI, known for its flagship product ChatGPT. OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit organization to, in the words of the organization, “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.” A for-profit subsidiary of OpenAI was created in 2019 to scale its research and deployment. As of 2025, Altman was the CEO of the firm as well as a board member of its governing body, the OpenAI Foundation. 1

In November 2023, Sam Altman was dismissed as CEO by the OpenAI board of directors after it conducted a “deliberative review process” that determined “he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board, hindering its ability to exercise its responsibilities.” The board added that it no longer had “confidence” in Altman’s leadership abilities and announced OpenAI CTO Mira Murati would step in as interim CEO. The ousting was reportedly organized by OpenAI co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, who was allegedly concerned about the profit-seeking behavior of the firm under Altman’s direction. That same day, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman resigned over the news, followed by three senior researchers. Less than 24 hours later, OpenAI’s investors, including Microsoft through its CEO Satya Nadella, pressured the firm to rehire Altman. Two days later, Altman and Brockman joined Microsoft. Later that week, Altman was restored as CEO of OpenAI and a majority of the board directors were dismissed. 2 3 4 5 6

In October 2025, Altman announced that ChatGPT would allow for pornographic content generation. Following widespread criticism, in November 2025, Altman said his announcement was one of his “dumbest mistakes of the year,” but maintained that giving adult users “a huge degree of individual freedom” was a “core value” of the company. In December 2025, it was reported that ChatGPT’s “adult mode” would be introduced in early 2026. 7 8 9

In November 2025, Sam Altman said he would be “ashamed” if OpenAI was not the first company to be “run by an AI CEO.” He said that he would retire to his farm if he were to be replaced. “In the short term, AI will destroy a lot of jobs. In the long term, like every other technological revolution, I assume we will figure out completely new things to do,” he added. 10

Philanthropy

In November 2025, Sam Altman joined the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic commitment for billionaires to pledge at least 50 percent of their wealth to charity during their lifetimes or in their wills. It was pioneered by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffet. At that time, Forbes estimated his wealth to be around $1 billion, and The Independent noted it was largely derived from venture capital investments. 11

Politics

In 2017, Sam Altman criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policy, tweeting: “To my friends here via DACA: I can’t believe Trump is doing a political high-wire act with your lives. I’m so sorry. This is cruel.” 12

In 2017, Altman announced he was launching a political advocacy group called the United Slate to push for infrastructure upgrades and to discover candidates willing to make that a core issue. As of 2025, United Slate’s website was defunct. 13 14

Sam Altman considered running for governor of California in the 2018 election, inspired by “economic justice” concepts such as affordability and affordable housing, but eventually decided against it. At the time, former Mayor of San Francisco Willie Brown (D) wrote a column for the San Francisco Chronicle claiming that he had met with Altman and discussed his potential run. Brown said Altman had planned to use “digital intelligence” rather than traditional campaigning techniques and would have targeted “young folks and immigrants who will be voting for the first time.” 15 16 17

In 2019, Sam Altman invited then-presidential candidate Andrew Yang (D) to his San Francisco home for a fundraising event. 18

In December 2021, Altman publicly thanked LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman for his funding in opposition to the re-election of Donald Trump. 19

In November 2024, Altman congratulated President Donald Trump for winning the presidential election. “I wish for his huge success in the job,” he wrote. In January 2025, Altman stood with Trump in the White House for the president’s announcement of a $500 billion “Stargate” initiative for artificial intelligence infrastructure. 20 21

Personal Life

In 2024, Sam Altman married his partner Oliver Mulherin. In February 2025, they welcomed a child through surrogacy. 22 23

Altman was formerly the CEO of Y Combinator, a tech startup incubator. 22

Altman has expressed concerned about doomsday scenarios and has said he stockpiles supplies in case of civilizational collapse. “I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israel Defense Forces, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to,” he told Business Insider in 2023. According to a 2016 interview with the New Yorker, Altman said his friends regularly discuss “the ways the world will end.” 24 25

References

  1. “Our structure.” OpenAI. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://openai.com/our-structure/.
  2. Binder, Matt. “Here’s a timeline of the OpenAI saga with CEO Sam Altman.” Mashable, November 22, 2023. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://mashable.com/article/openai-sam-altman-saga-timeline.
  3. “OpenAI announces leadership transition.” OpenAI, November 17, 2023. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://openai.com/index/openai-announces-leadership-transition/.
  4. Konrad, Alex; Jeans, David. “OpenAI Investors Plot Last-Minute Push With Microsoft To Reinstate Sam Altman As CEO.” Forbes, November 18, 2023. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/11/18/openai-investors-scramble-to-reinstate-sam-altman-as-ceo/?sh=2d1c2c3260da.
  5. Holmes, Aaron; Clark, Kate. “Microsoft Eyes Seat on OpenAI’s Revamped Board.” The Information. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.theinformation.com/articles/microsoft-eyes-seat-on-openais-revamped-board.
  6. “What happened at OpenAI? The Sam Altman saga, explained.” The Washington Post, November 22, 2025. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/20/openai-sam-altman-ceo-oust/.
  7. Powel, James. “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon allow ‘erotica’ for adult users.” USA Today, October 15, 2025. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2025/10/15/openai-chatgpt-erotica-sam-altman/86716163007/.
  8. Shugerman, Emily. “Sam Altman calls ChatGPT erotica tweet ‘one of my dumbest mistakes.’” The San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 2025. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://sfstandard.com/2025/11/04/sam-altman-steve-kerr-san-francisco-talk/.
  9. Dellinger, AJ. “ChatGPT’s ‘Adult Mode’ Is Coming in 2026” Gizmodo, December 11, 2025. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://gizmodo.com/chatgpts-adult-mode-is-coming-in-2026-2000698677.
  10. Varanasi, Lakshmi. “Sam Altman says he would be ashamed if OpenAI weren’t the first company run by an AI CEO.” Business Insider, November 5, 2025. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-openai-ai-ceo-2025-11.
  11. Pollard, James. “OpenAI’s Sam Altman joins Giving Pledge, focusing his money on tech that ‘helps.’” The Independent, November 16, 2025. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.the-independent.com/tech/sam-altman-bill-gates-openai-b2866250.html.
  12. Post – Sam Altman. Twitter, September 5, 2017. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://x.com/sama/status/905117240873238528.
  13. Romm, Tony. “Sam Altman will spend big on a new political movement to fix U.S. housing, health care and more.” Vox, July 31, 2017. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.vox.com/2017/7/31/16066640/sam-altman-united-slate-health-care-housing-california-2018-midterm-elections-trump.
  14. “The United Slate.” Sam Altman blog, July 12, 2017. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://blog.samaltman.com/the-united-slate.
  15. Johnson, Eric. “Full Q&A: Y Combinator’s Sam Altman and Recode’s Kara Swisher discuss tech ethics, addiction and Facebook.” Vox, December 10, 2018. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.vox.com/2018/12/10/18134926/sam-altman-kara-swisher-recode-decode-live-mannys-podcast-transcript-facebook-zuckerberg-ethics.
  16. Townsend, Tess. “Sam Altman for governor?” Vox, May 14, 2017. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.vox.com/2017/5/14/15638046/willie-brown-column-sam-altman-might-run-governor-california-2018. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20221024052151/https://www.vox.com/2017/5/14/15638046/willie-brown-column-sam-altman-might-run-governor-california-2018.
  17. Brown, Willie. “The man President Trump fears most.” The San Francisco Chronicle, May 13, 2017. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/williesworld/article/The-man-President-Trump-fears-most-11144034.php. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20220812083909/https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/williesworld/article/The-man-President-Trump-fears-most-11144034.php.
  18. Russell, Melia. “Andrew Yang preached his tech-friendly gospel at Sam Altman’s San Francisco house: You can’t treat tech like oil companies and breaking up Amazon won’t bring malls back.” Business Insider, November 13, 2019. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.businessinsider.com/andrew-yang-talks-tech-san-francisco-sam-altman-fundraiser-2019-11.
  19. Post – Sam Altman. Twitter, December 15, 2021. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://x.com/sama/status/1471210631969660930.
  20. Post – Sam Altman. Twitter, November 6, 2024. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://x.com/sama/status/1854202040773460133.
  21. Steakin, Will; Kim, Soo Rin. “OpenAI’s Sam Altman once warned America about Trump. Now he’s partnering with him.” ABC News, January 27, 2025. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://abcnews.go.com/US/openais-sam-altman-warned-america-trump-now-partnering/story?id=118145337.
  22. Ingram, David. “OpenAI CEO Sam Altman marries partner in seaside ceremony.” NBC News, January 11, 2024. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/sam-altman-oliver-mulherin-ollie-wedding-married-partner-boyfriend-rcna133512.
  23. Smith, Dave. “Sam Altman says colleagues are glad he’s a dad now, because they think raising a child will help him make ‘better decisions for humanity.’” Fortune, August 22, 2025. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://fortune.com/2025/08/22/sam-altman-parenting-raising-child-better-decisions-humanity/.
  24. Russell, Melia; Black, Julia. “Inside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s fixation on death and the apocalypse.” Business insider, May 3, 2023. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-pandemic-apocalypse-immortality-life-extension-openai-2023-4. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20230519023856/https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-pandemic-apocalypse-immortality-life-extension-openai-2023-4.
  25. Friend, Tad. “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny.” The New Yorker, October 10, 2016. Accessed December 16, 2025. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-manifest-destiny. Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20170517010534/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-manifest-destiny.
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