Episode 2106 - June 20 - Tiếng Anh - Phần 1 của 1 - Đế chế đầu tư mờ ám - Vina Technology at AI time - Lê Quang Văn | Podcast - Nhac.vn

The Opaque Investment Empire Making OpenAI’s Sam Altman Rich

Many companies backed by CEO do business with the ChatGPT maker and benefit from the AI boom driven by the blockbuster startup, raising questions of conflicts

By Berber Jin, Tom Dotan and Keach Hagey. WSJ. June 3, 2024.

Sam Altman has a day job and a side gig. Only one of them is making him rich.

As the chief executive and co-founder of OpenAI, the 39-year-old oversees an artificial-intelligence startup valued at $86 billion that is spearheading a technological revolution. He owns no stake in the ChatGPT developer, saying he doesn’t want the seductions of wealth to corrupt the safe development of artificial intelligence, and makes a yearly salary of just $65,000.

Less publicly, Altman is one of Silicon Valley’s most prolific and aggressive individual investors, managing a sprawling investment empire that is becoming a direct beneficiary of OpenAI’s success. The holdings he controls were worth at least $2.8 billion as of early this year, according to company filings and Wall Street Journal reporting. Much of the portfolio isn’t widely known.

Altman and his venture funds have invested in more than 400 companies, by Altman’s own estimate, including big names such as Stripe, Airbnb and Reddit. The holdings are managed by his family office and rival the value and size of some full-blown venture firms.

Altman has added to his startup stakes by drawing on a debt line from JPMorgan Chase, his longtime personal bank, allowing him to pour hundreds of millions of dollars more into private companies. Altman’s strategy, not previously reported, is rare among venture capitalists given the volatile nature of startup investing, where high percentages of young companies go bust. Taking on such personal levels of debt is a risky gamble.

A growing number of Altman’s startups do business with OpenAI itself, either as customers or major business partners. The arrangement puts Altman on both sides of deals, creating a mounting list of potential conflicts in which he could personally benefit from OpenAI’s work.

OpenAI is in talks for a deal with Helion, a nuclear-energy startup that is chaired by Altman, in which it would buy vast quantities of electricity to provide power for data centers.

The 11-year-old company is planning to build nuclear-fusion power plants, a technology that doesn’t yet exist in a usable format. Altman invested $375 million in Helion in 2021, his largest startup check ever written. The startup signed on Microsoft, its first customer and OpenAI’s largest investor, last year.

Altman has recused himself from the deal talks between OpenAI and Helion, which haven’t been previously reported.

Last month, OpenAI announced a partnership with Reddit in which it would pay to bring the messaging site’s content to ChatGPT and other AI products. Altman and entities he controls own 7.6% of Reddit, making him the third-largest outside shareholder, and he briefly served as its CEO in 2014.

Reddit’s stock shot up 10% after the announcement, boosting Altman’s stake by $69 million to $754 million. Altman didn’t lead the partnership talks, OpenAI said in a blog post.

Altman’s more recent investments have focused on companies that aim to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom being driven by OpenAI. Apex Security, in which Altman invested an undisclosed amount last summer, aims to sell cybersecurity software to companies using AI products such as ChatGPT. He also invested an undisclosed amount in Exowatt, a startup tackling the clean-energy needs of big data centers used by AI companies

Through a spokesperson, Altman declined to comment on any potential conflicts of interest between OpenAI and his personal investments

Altman has “consistently followed policies and been transparent about his investments,” said Bret Taylor, the chairman of OpenAI’s board

“Sam is fully focused on his role as CEO. We carefully manage any potential conflicts and always put OpenAI and our mission