--- title: We’ll all be saying Sam Altman’s name a lot, so let’s get to know the guy - The Hustle description: The OpenAI CEO has rocked Silicon Valley and Wall Street. What’s his story? image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1671703826-httpsmedia.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMay2031202023altman.webp --- # We’ll all be saying Sam Altman’s name a lot, so let’s get to know the guy ![Ben Berkley](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Ben Berkley](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/ben-berkley) Published: June 02, 2023 Updated: October 11, 2023 OpenAI has had a pretty good year. ChatGPT is a household name, and oh yeah, the company has added [~$10B](https://www.reuters.com/business/chatgpt-owner-openai-projects-1-billion-revenue-by-2024-sources-2022-12-15/) in valuation — so far. ![We’ll all be saying Sam Altman’s name a lot, so let’s get to know the guy](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1671703826-httpsmedia.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMay2031202023altman.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1671703826-httpsmedia.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMay2031202023altman.webp) As a result, its 38-year-old co-founder and CEO, Sam Altman, is ascendant in business royalty. **So, what’s his deal?** A St. Louis native and Stanford dropout, Altman’s first startup was Loopt, a phone location-sharing service. Altman then moved into venture capital. That went quite well for him. At 28, he led Y Combinator, the famed startup accelerator behind companies like Airbnb, Instacart, Stripe, and Reddit. (He served as Reddit’s CEO for eight days in 2014.) OpenAI launched in 2015, and it’s been Altman’s full-time focus since 2019, per *Insider*. Though his portfolio has continued to grow beyond AI: - His [investments include](https://observer.com/2023/05/openai-sam-altman-startup-portfolio/) nuclear fusion developer Helion Energy; Elon Musk’s brain-implant startup Neuralink; sports card trading platform Alt; supersonic jet maker Hermeus; and multiple biotech companies. Altman’s estimated net worth today is [~$500m](https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/ceos/sam-altman-net-worth/). **What else?** - Altman learned to program and disassemble computers at 8 years old, and credited his Mac — and AOL chatrooms — for helping him survive “growing up gay in the Midwest,” [per](http://newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/sam-altmans-manifest-destiny) *The New Yorker*. - His mom is a dermatologist. His brother, Jack, is also CEO of a [multibillion-dollar](https://techcrunch.com/2022/01/19/lattice-raises-175m-more-at-a-3b-valuation-for-its-people-management-platform/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAIrhINnb6cd_L8sMgDOhP9OsbwVsfcFXYhePmtwo0qlRSLSUXtQ7vkKMJLF-L9b0Og8-c2t3mMm_ELnvjSQF8XJS-AHsWET4uX9hsje1veJKQYvTWozXJbgDOJJ4dEbhDWFoPGqVvVZesr_odQHSQtVAReUZW30_biA8BekSXwF2) company (people management platform Lattice). - Altman is ready for the End Times: “I have guns, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, [and] gas masks,” he told *The New Yorker* in 2016. But if he has his way, Altman — and everyone else, for that matter — will be around a long time: He has invested $180m in lifespan-extension startup Retro Biosciences. His goal, [per](https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-pandemic-apocalypse-immortality-life-extension-openai-2023-4) *Insider*, isn’t immortality but “to give people another 10 years of healthy, vigorous life.” Topics: [Celebrity](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/celebrity) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![How do we not know who Satoshi Nakamoto is?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/254575623-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-satoshi_20230705231801.webp) ### How do we not know who Satoshi Nakamoto is? - ![Why cage fight when you could paintball?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/775880710-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-paintball_20230622224438.webp) ### Why cage fight when you could paintball? - ![Fake drama, real money on reality TV](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/148231346-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-Bravolebrities_20230607222743.webp) ### Fake drama, real money on reality TV - ![Who runs the world? We’re increasingly convinced it’s Beyoncé](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/577519220-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-beyonce_20230615230932.webp) ### Who runs the world? We’re increasingly convinced it’s Beyoncé - ![T-Swift fans are buying up sparkly boots and fringe](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/949330684-httpsmedia.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMay2031202023tswift.webp) ### T-Swift fans are buying up sparkly boots and fringe - ![Ryan Reynolds, marketing genius?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/443732073-HS-News-Brief_2023-03-17T002332.170Z.webp) ### Ryan Reynolds, marketing genius? - ![The top posthumous earners](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/948944258-HS-News-Brief_2022-11-07T004856.973Z.webp) ### The top posthumous earners - ![Taylor Swift’s record week](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1189449884-HS-News-Brief_2022-11-04T001109.110Z.webp) ### Taylor Swift’s record week - ![What’s happening with Twitter?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/523835087-HS-News-Brief_2022-11-01T010009.526Z.webp) ### What’s happening with Twitter? - ![Serena Williams’ next chapter](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1421902281-HS-News-Brief_2022-08-17T234149.960Z.webp) ### Serena Williams’ next chapter Pop up for Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Get the 5-minute news brief keeping 2.5M+ innovators in the loop. Always free. 100% fresh. No bullsh*t. JOIN FREE ### 100% Free CRM Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software. Signup for a free account Close modal ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Ben Berkley", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/ben-berkley" }, "datePublished" : "2023-06-02T23:17:26.000Z", "headline" : "We’ll all be saying Sam Altman’s name a lot, so let’s get to know the guy", "image" : [ "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1671703826-httpsmedia.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMay2031202023altman.webp" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/we-ll-all-be-saying-sam-altman-s-name-a-lot-so-let-s-get-to-know-the-guy", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject" } } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "#article", "@type" : "NewsArticle", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Ben Berkley", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/ben-berkley" }, "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T19:21:46+0000", "datePublished" : "2023-06-02T23:17:26+0000", "headline" : "We’ll all be saying Sam Altman’s name a lot, so let’s get to know the guy", "image" : [ "https://7355427.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7355427/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1671703826-httpsmedia.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMay2031202023altman.webp" ], "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 112, "url" : "https://fs.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/Blog%202021/Images/Logos/HubSpot%20Logo%20112X112.svg", "width" : 112 }, "name" : "HubSpot", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.facebook.com/hubspot", "https://twitter.com/hubspot" ], "url" : "https://www.hubspot.com" }, "speakable" : { "@type" : "SpeakableSpecification", "xPath" : [ "//title", "/html/head/meta[@name='description']/@content" ] } } ```