(Victoria Cook, Headline USA) Sam Altman, cofounder and CEO of artificial intelligence heavyhitter OpenAI is to receive 7% of the company’s stock shares, estimated at $10.5 billion.
This action, along with its recent shift to become a for-profit enterprise, contradicts prior statements Altman has made in the last year about his supposedly altruistic motives.
“It’s so deeply unimaginable to people to say I don’t really need more money,” Altman said in May on the “All-In Podcast.”
“If I were to say ‘I’m going to try and make a trillion dollars with OpenAI,’ it would save a lot of conspiracy theories,” he added.
Altman was spotted driving a Koenigsegg Regera—a car estimated to be at least $1.9 million when new. As of November 2023, his elite car collection consists of two McLaurens, one Tesla and one Lexus.
In testimony last year before the U.S. Senate, Altman claimed that he was paid enough for health insurance and had “no equity in OpenAI”.
When prompted why, he said, “I’m doing this, because I love it.”
OpenAI has gone through a tumultuous restructuring, in its process to change from a nonprofit to a for-profit. Its recent valuation comes to an estimated $150 billion.
During this change, Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, Chief Research Officer Bob McGrew, and research Vice President Barret Zoph have left, showing their resignation letters to the public on Sept. 25. They joined cofounders Ilya Sutskever and John Schulman, who left the company earlier this year.
Only three of the 12 original cofounders remain with OpenAI: Altman, Greg Brockman and Wojciech Zaremba.
Elon Musk, another OpenAI cofounder and charter investor—who has purportedly invested around $45 million in the company, sued Altman and OpenAI this year, claiming the original altruistic mission was sacrificed for profit.
