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Sam Altman

Co-founder & CEO, OpenAI

Sam Altman is an entrepreneur and investor whose career links startup building with AI research and deployment. He co-founded Loopt, joined Y Combinator’s first startup batch, and later became the accelerator’s president. He helped launch OpenAI in 2015 and became its CEO in 2019. Under his leadership, the company introduced ChatGPT and subsequently adopted its Foundation and public benefit corporation structure.

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Sam Altman portrait
Photo: Steve Jennings / Getty Images for TechCrunch; published by TechCrunchCC BY 2.0 · Displayed in grayscale

At a glance

Sam Altman is an entrepreneur and investor whose career links startup building with AI research and deployment. He co-founded Loopt, joined Y Combinator’s first startup batch, and later became the accelerator’s president. He helped launch OpenAI in 2015 and became its CEO in 2019. Under his leadership, the company introduced ChatGPT and subsequently adopted its Foundation and public benefit corporation structure.

Early company
Loopt ↗

Sources checked . Selected career background and milestones.

Career, in context.

Selected research, leadership and career milestones, newest first.

  1. OpenAI updates its structure

    OpenAI announces its Foundation and Group PBC structure. Its current governance overview identifies Altman as CEO and a member of the Foundation board.

    Source: OpenAI ↗

  2. Returns as OpenAI CEO

    OpenAI publishes messages announcing Altman’s return as chief executive and a new initial board following the company’s November 2023 leadership crisis.

    Source: OpenAI ↗

  3. OpenAI introduces ChatGPT

    OpenAI releases ChatGPT as a research preview during Altman’s leadership. The launch introduces a conversational interface for interacting with the company’s language models.

    Source: OpenAI ↗

  4. Leads OpenAI as CEO

    The OpenAI LP announcement identifies Altman as chief executive as the organisation creates a capped-profit entity to support its research and deployment work.

    Source: OpenAI ↗

  5. Helps launch OpenAI

    OpenAI introduces itself as a nonprofit artificial intelligence research company, naming Altman and Elon Musk as co-chairs of its founding leadership team.

    Source: OpenAI ↗

  6. Becomes president of Y Combinator

    Paul Graham announces that Altman will become Y Combinator’s president starting with the next batch, taking responsibility for leading the startup accelerator.

    Source: Y Combinator ↗

  7. Loopt is acquired by Green Dot

    Y Combinator’s later biography records Green Dot’s acquisition of Loopt in 2012, after Altman built the company through its initial startup period.

    Source: Y Combinator ↗

  8. Co-founds Loopt

    Altman co-founds Loopt and participates in Y Combinator’s first summer batch. The location-based startup precedes his later accelerator leadership and AI company work.

    Source: Y Combinator ↗

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