
Samuel Harris Gibstine Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur, investor, and chief executive officer of OpenAI since 2019. He is considered one of the leading figures of the AI boom.
Altman dropped out of Stanford University after two years and founded Loopt, a mobile social networking service, raising more than $30 million in venture capital. In 2011, Altman joined Y Combinator, a startup accelerator, and was its president from 2014 to 2019. In 2019, he became CEO of OpenAI and oversaw the successful launch of ChatGPT in 2022. He was ousted from the role by the company's board in 2023 due to a lack of confidence in his leadership, but was reinstated five days later following significant backlash from employees and investors, after which a new board was formed. He has served as chairman of clean energy companies Helion Energy and Oklo (until April 2025). Altman's net worth was estimated at $1.8 billion as of July 2025.