Sam Altman

Sam Altman is the celebrity CEO face of the AI boom. The OpenAI cofounder and CEO has transformed a once obscure nonprofit research lab into a household brand now valued at more than $157 billion and leading what many see as the most significant technological shift since the industrial revolution. Its signature product, ChatGPT, has attracted more than 100 million weekly users, and its enterprise products are used by most of the Fortune 500. Business leaders and government officials seek Altman’s views about AI’s likely impacts—and on the colossal investments the technology demands. His brief ousting and rapid reinstatement as OpenAI's CEO in late 2023 highlighted both his indispensability to the company and the tensions surrounding AI governance. Altman remains polarizing, with critics charging he prioritizes product launches over safety concerns, or legal niceties such as copyright. Others say his multibillion-dollar personal investments in tech startups represent conflicts of interest, or suggest that OpenAI, which is burning billions of dollars in cash annually, could wind up imploding. But love him or hate him, Altman is a force to be reckoned with.