How Sam Altman Could Become the First Trillionaire
A nonprofit trillionaire at OpenAI to be specific
Sam Altman wants you to think he didn’t take any equity in OpenAI because he “didn’t need the money.” But is that really the full story? Is Altman running OpenAI purely for altruistic purposes, as one might assume given the parent company is still a nonprofit foundation?
The first person I heard question Altman’s ownership stake was David Sacks on the All-In Podcast. In short, he espoused “informed speculation” (as he called it) that Altman actually stood to gain immensely, despite not directly owning equity, should OpenAI dominate the artificial intelligence industry.
Altman could become the first trillionaire.
Let’s make this theory less speculative and examine how it might be possible.
Sam Altman has always been an entrepreneur, first and foremost
That’s not to say that Altman will never be a philanthropist, but his track record is that of a prototypical technology entrepreneur. He was President of Y Combinator (currently Chairman of the Board), which is considered by many to be the best startup accelerator in the world. Previously, he co-founded Loopt, was briefly the CEO of Reddit, and more recently…
