TIME100 AI 2026 · Leaders
Sam Altman
CEO, OpenAI
OpenAI's board fired him in November 2023, and he was back in charge five days later after more than 700 of 770 employees threatened to quit.
- Born
- 1985-04-22, Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Now
- CEO, OpenAI
- Studied
- Stanford University
Interesting facts
- Early start
Left Stanford after two years to build Loopt, a location-sharing app he started at 19 and sold for $43.4 million in 2012.
en.wikipedia.org - Numbers
Ran Y Combinator from 2014 to 2019; the accelerator had funded about 1,900 companies when he left.
britannica.com - In their words
Credits poker with teaching him how to make decisions with very imperfect information.
britannica.com - Side project
Co-founded Merge Labs in 2026, a brain-computer interface lab, years after writing an essay about humans merging with machines.
openai.com - Connection
Stepped down as chair of nuclear company Oklo in 2025 and fusion company Helion in 2026 as OpenAI sought power deals with them.
techcrunch.com
Career
- OpenAICEO2015 to now
- Hydrazine CapitalCo-founder2012 to now
- Y CombinatorPresident2011–2019
- LooptCo-founder and CEO2005–2012
Education
- Attended, left without a degree, Computer science, Stanford University
Sources1en.wikipedia.org
