Sam Altman is the most recognizable face of the AI industry in the world. He directs OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT and is today valued at 852,000 million of dollars. However, a leaked document during the ongoing trial between Altman and Elon Musk Due to the change in status from an NGO to a for-profit entity, it has revealed who the true investors of OpenAI are and how much their participation in the company amounts to.
In the box next to his name, only three letters appear: TBD, which in English means “to be determined.” The man who leads the biggest technological revolution in recent years does not own a single share of his own company.
Sam Altman works for the love of art. OpenAI was born in 2015 as non-profit organization with an ambitious mission: to develop AI safely and for the good of humanity. That Altman did not take stock then made some sense since his role was presented as the neutral guardian, the leader whose decisions were not tainted by money. A noble mission, without a doubt. But that It is not the scenario in 2026.
In 2019, OpenAI’s charity structure began to become too small to compete in the AI race. OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary under the so-called “capped-profit” model, in which investors they could make profits limited. That opened the door for capital and also for executives and co-founders to secure huge stakes in OpenAI. Altman’s name, paradoxically, remained blank.
Those who did get rich, and a lot. As and how I collected Forbes, Greg Brockman, co-founder and former president of OpenAI, admitted during the trial that he owns a stake worth about $30 billion for which he paid nothing. Ilya Sutskever, former scientific director, has a participation between 30,000 and 35,000 million dollars. Figures very far from the annual compensation of $76,001 that its CEO receives, according to the tax form from OpenAI.
The other major beneficiary is the Sound Ventures fund, linked to actor Ashton Kutcherinvested 30 million dollars in an early phase and that bet is now worth 1.3 billion, a return of 43 times the investment. In total, current and former employees control about $165 billion in company shares.
The distribution among the greats. The block of corporate investors formed by Microsoft, SoftBank, Amazon and NVIDIA, together control 46.58% of OpenAI, with a stake valued at $396.9 billion against a combined investment of $122.7 billion. Microsoft leads that group with 26.79% of the company, a position valued at $228.3 billion built from an initial investment of 13,000 million.
SoftBank occupies second place with 11.66% of OpenAI, valued at 99.3 billion compared to an initial payment of 64.6 billion, which represents a profitability of 1.5 times. amazon It has 4.66% of the company, valued at 39.7 billion dollars with an investment of 15 billion and a profitability of 2.6 times.
At the top of the table is the OpenAI Foundation, the original non-profit entity, with 25.80% of the company and a stake valued at $219.8 billion which, having been formed with contributions without financial compensation, technically has an infinite return. Here may lie the key to the mystery of Altman’s retribution.
A calculated move. The most widespread theory is that Altman and the board of directors, which he has firmly controlled since surviving the 2023 impeachment attempt, They are simply biding their time.
Once the dispute with Musk concludes, the OpenAI board is likely to retroactively determine that Altman deserves participation commensurate with his responsibility. It is likely that, as is the case with other CEOs, This remuneration is linked to milestones like taking the company public with a valuation of more than a billion dollars. Perhaps this retribution will arise from that reserved fund now controlled by the OpenAI Foundation.
Meanwhile, Altman is not exactly in trouble and your personal assets exceeds 2 billion dollars thanks to investments in companies that, curiously, are very well positioned to benefit from the growth of OpenAI. Without being a shareholder in his own company, he has built a personal business ecosystem that prospers directly thanks to his success.
Image | Flikr (TechCrunch)
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