He leads the startup that initiated the exponential growth of generative artificial intelligence (AI), some even compare him to visionaries like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. At the age of 39, Sam Altman has only one goal in mind: to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), that is, capable of equaling humans in all tasks. And he’s pretty well on his way to achieving that.
He knew how to take apart a Macintosh at 8 years old
Born April 22, 1985 in Chicago, Illinois, Sam Altman grew up 500 kilometers away, in St Louis, Missouri. Considered precocious, he already knew how to program and disassemble a Macintosh at the age of eight. Although he was brilliant throughout his academic career, he abandoned his computer science studies at the prestigious Stanford University after two years.
He says his poker games taught him more than his teachers, helping him deal with decision-making and risk assessment in the business world.
Loopt, its first application
It was the start of an entrepreneurial adventure that would take him very far. In 2005, at just 19 years old, Sam Altman co-founded the Loopt application, a location-based social network, with the ambition of revolutionizing the way users connect with their friends in real time.
Loopt was sold in 2012 to Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million. Its legacy continues today in many modern platforms.
Investor serial
The same year, Sam Altman co-founded Hydrazine Capital with his brother, Jack Altman. This fund invests in early-stage companies, focusing on software, as well as information technology or real estate. Its most notable investment is undoubtedly Stripe, the fintech specializing in online payments.
In 2011, Sam Altman became a part-time partner at Y Combinator (YC), a renowned startup incubator coupled with a venture capital firm. He became a full-time partner in 2012, then president in 2014. During his tenure, he significantly increased the reach and impact of YC. Among its most important investments, we find Airbnb, Reddit, Dropbox and DoorDash.
Altman left his position as president in 2019, before joining again in 2021. However, he had to choose between this position and his role at a certain OpenAI.
Contested management at OpenAI
Sam Altman is of course one of the co-founders of OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT. He has been its CEO since 2019. It is the adventure that propelled him to the forefront, as the company has experienced a crazy rise. Valued at $157 billion, it is among the three most valuable private companies in the world.
The company has established a colossal partnership with Microsoft, and continues to roll out its artificial intelligence tools to users around the world. However, the atmosphere seems less favorable internally. Sam Altman has faced heavy criticism from his colleagues, with some even attempting to oust him as CEO in November 2023.
Since then, several members of his teams, notably his right-hand men, have decided to jump ship to set up their own AI startups. Some have directly criticized Sam Altman for his approach to deploying AI, deeming it far too rapid and prioritizing profit over risk mitigation.
Despite these reprimands, the manager assures that he wants a safe and secure deployment of AI. He even agreed to have the American AI Security Institute evaluate its new models before their public release. At the same time, he expressed reservations about regulating technology, fearing that it would slow down innovation.
On the road to superintelligence
With OpenAI, Sam Altman wants to develop artificial general intelligence, which he considers to be an intermediate step before superintelligence, that is to say an AI which greatly exceeds human cognitive capacities. He believes that this technology will increase human abilities to solve major problems.
“Ihe thinks the future will be so bright that no one will be able to do it justice by trying to write it now; a defining characteristic of the intelligence age will be massive prosperity », he predicts in his personal blog. “ Although it will happen gradually, stunning triumphs – solving climate change, establishing a space colony and discovering all of physics – will eventually become commonplace », he continues.
However, these comments are put into perspective by many experts, with many believing that Sam Altman’s forecasts are too optimistic and that such capacities will not be achieved for many years.
Elon Musk’s enemy
Sam Altman began his adventure at OpenAI alongside Elon Musk, who is one of the startup’s co-founders. After an internal conflict, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla decided to slam the door on the company. He is now at the head of his competitor xAI.
Musk has filed complaints against OpenAI four times, specifically targeting Sam Altman. He believes the entrepreneur has strayed from the company’s original goal, which was to develop AI for the benefit of humanity. A feud that is still in full swing, although Altman is much more discreet about it than his former associate.
Interest in nuclear fusion
Sam Altman is very interested in clean energy, and in particular nuclear fusion. If this energy cannot yet be exploited on a large scale, the director of OpenAI considers it essential to cover the astronomical energy needs generated by generative AI.
With this in mind, he personally invested $375 million in Helion Energy, an American company specializing in nuclear fusion. He even sits on its board of directors.
Sam Altman is a billionaire
Sam Altman is now a billionaire, with a fortune estimated at $2 billion. A sum which is largely attributed to his investments, with stakes in more than 400 companies.
