Sam Altman

Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who has served as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the artificial intelligence research organization OpenAI since 2019. Having overseen the successful launch of ChatGPT in 2022, he is widely considered to be one of the leading figures of the AI boom.
Altman attended Stanford University for two years before dropping out and co-founding Loopt, a smartphone geosocial networking service, which raised more than US$30 million in venture capital. In 2011, Altman joined Y Combinator, a technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm, and was the company's president from 2014 to 2019. In 2023, four years after becoming OpenAI's CEO, he was ousted by the organization's board of directors, who cited a lack of "confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI" in an official post. However, the move was immediately met with significant backlash from employees and investors, resulting in Altman's reinstatement five days later and the formation of a new board. He has served as the chairman of clean energy companies Helion Energy and Oklo, from which he stepped down in April 2025.
In 2025, Altman was named among the "Architects of AI" for Time's Person of the Year. His net worth is estimated at US$2.1 billion by Forbes.