Sam Altman

Spear’s Review

That it took until March 2024 for Sam Altman’s name to appear on the usual lists of billionaires might seem like an oversight. After all, the 39-year-old chief executive and founding member of OpenAI has become one of the most celebrated names in Silicon Valley history following the arrival of ChatGPT, the globe-conquering AI interface released to the public in the closing days of 2022.

For all its success, ChatGPT didn’t make Altman rich. OpenAI may have recently been valued at $80 billion, but it was founded in 2015 as a non-profit, meaning its founders didn’t receive equity in the project. The San Francisco-based outlet transitioned to a ‘capped profit’ model in 2019, but Altman still didn’t receive the typical tech windfall.

Instead, his $2 billion net worth comes from his stakes in other successful tech ventures, notably his early investment in both Reddit and Stripe, as well as his more recent bets on fusion research outfit Helion and anti-ageing biotech Retro.

Generative AI has created other billionaires, though. The explosion around the technology, and the resulting scrambles for processing power, has apparently minted eight new billionaires already. They include semiconductor magnate Kwak Dong Shin, Supermicro co-founder Charles Liang and robotics visionary Brett Adcock. As the AI revolution unfolds, there are likely to be many, many more.