Who is Sam Altman?

Sam Altman is currently the CEO of OpenAI and was previously the president of Y Combinator, a technology accelerator program that invests capital in large number of companies twice a year. ChatGPT, one of many subset of products offered by OpenAI, crossed 100 Million users in 2 months, making it the number one fastest digital products of all time.

Here are 50+ interesting Sam Altman Facts

1. Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI
2. Sam Altman was born on April 22, 1985 in Chicago, Illinois.
3. Had an interest in technology at a young age. Taking apart a Macintosh computer at age 8.
4. Previously he was president of Y Combinator, which is a technology startup accelerator.
5. At Y Combinator, he had a goal of helping to start atleast 1,000 new companies.
6. Studied computer science at Stanford and dropped out after one year at the age of 20 in 2005.
7. Founded Loopt, a mobile location-based social networking app at age 19 which later sold for $43.4 million.
8. He was the CEO of Reddit for 8 days.
9. He co-chaired OpenAI with Elon Musk.
10. He wrote a book called “How to be Successful.”
11. He taught a class at Stanford called “How to Start a Startup.”
12. He likes renting planes and flying them around California.
13. Sam’s mom is a dermatologist.
14. He has a brother named Jack who is the CEO of Lattice.
15. Sam became CEO of OpenAI in May 2019.
16. He presented OpenAI to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft in 2019 which went on the receive a $1 billion investment.
17. He launched a cryptocurrency project in 2021 called Worldcoin.
18. ChatGPT was released on November 30th and reached over 1 Million users in 5 days and 100 Million users in 2 months making it the fastest growing app in internet history.
19. His net worth is estimated at $250 Million.
20. He has a blog
21. He’s a vegetarian.
22. He’s on the board for two nuclear energy companies.
23. Named top investor under 30 by Forbes in 2015.
24. Sam’s known as a doomsday prepper: has storage of gold, guns, and gas masks.
25. Sam is paranoid of a lethal synthetic virus, nuclear war, or the threat of AI for humanity.
26. He has donated millions towards the research of universal basic income.
27. Book recommendations by Sam Altman: Sapiens, The Beginning of Infinity, The Three-Body Problem
28. Sam tweets almost daily
29. Altman is board member of Reddit and Airbnb.
30. He has given talks at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.
31. He is proponent of the “lean startup” methodology.
32. He’s been as a guest on the TV show “Silicon Valley.”
33. Sam has been a guest on podcasts such as: “Invest Like the Best”, “The Knowledge Project”, “The a16z podcast” , and “Masters of Scale”.
34. He was part of the documentary called “Secrets of Silicon Valley”.
35. One of the contributors to the book “Zero to One” by Peter Thiel
36. Spoken on the ethics of tech, most recently reflected with the publication of how OpenAI will plan for AGI.
37. He’s invested in over 200 startups.
38. On November 17, 2023, Sam Altman was ousted from OpenAI by the board.
39. On November 21, 2023, Sam Altman returns as CEO of OpenAI.
40. Sam aspires the ambition of OpenAI similar to the Manhattan Project.
41. Sam Altman and J. Robert Oppenheimer share the same birthday, April 22.
42. He’s an angel investor for Pinterest.
43. Sam has been seen carrying a blue back bag, nicknamed as The Nuclear Backpack which has the ability to shutdown OpenAI in the event that AI goes out of control.
44. He’s a crisis preparer. In an interview with the New Yorker he said, “I try not to think about it too much. But I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israeli Defense Force, and a big patch of land in Big Sur I can fly to.”
45. Sam is the oldest of four siblings.
46. He’s an investor in Humane, a wearable device powered by AI.
47. He’s an investor in Retro Biosciences, a company looking to extend human life by 10 years through cellular reprogramming.
48. He funded and created Project Covalence to help accelerate the development of treatments and diagnostics for COVID-19
49. He’s personally invested $375 Million in Helion, a nuclear energy company striving to build unlimited clean electricity for the world.
50. He’s the chairman of Oklo, another startup looking to design and deploy small fission power plants.
51. Sam’s tips for productivity include: making to do lists, avoiding meetings, not drinking alcohol, good sleep through cold dark room, high interval training, avoid eating sugar, and fasting for 15 hours.