Will Sam Altman be the gay man that controls the world?
The court victory over Elon Musk clears the path to unleash the power of Artificial Intelligence.
The feud between Sam Altman and Elon Musk has been long-running but it seems that Altman has ultimately come out on top.
In the latest iteration of the dick-measuring contest between two of the world's richest men, Musk sued Altman - alleging that Altman broke the charitable foundations of OpenAI and unjustly enriched himself.
The California jury that heard the case dismissed Musk's claims and found in favour of Altman.
The consequence of that decision is that Altman can now push ahead with his for-profit plans for OpenAI. The next step in implementing Altman's strategy will be taking OpenAI public - the company is valued at USD$1tn.
While the legal impediments to Altman ramping up the scale of OpenAI seem to have been overcome, it's possible that regulators will attempt to develop some sort of governance framework - but the reality is that the horse has already bolted.
Who is Sam Altman?
Sam Altman is an American tech-entrepreneur best-known as CEO of the AI company, OpenAI.
Early Life and Career
Born in 1985, Altman attended Stanford University for two years before he dropped out and co-founded Loopt, a smartphone geo-social networking service.
Loopt was acquired by Green Dot Corporation for $43.4 million. In 2011, Altman joined Y Combinator, a technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm, and was the company's president from 2014 to 2019.
He is a billionaire with many investments including Reddit, Worldcoin, and Helion Energy.
OpenAI
Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and became its CEO in 2019, a role that made him a prominent figure of the AI boom.
He supervised the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.
Altman donated USD$1m to the inauguration fund for the Trump administration and has made substantial donations to Republican politicians - seeing to minimise any regulation of AI.
Personal Life
Altman identifies as a gay man and began publicly discussing his sexuality from the age of 17.
Significant relationships have included Nick Sivo - the co-founder of Loopt. They dated for nine years until 2012.
Altman met Oliver Mulherin at a party hosted by Peter Thiel in 2015. They married in 2024 and have a son together.
Gareth Johnson