Sam Altman
CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT
- Age
- 41 yrs
- Birthday in 167 days
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Sam Altman is an American entrepreneur and investor who has been CEO of OpenAI since 2019 and oversaw the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, which started the generative-AI boom. He was previously president of the start-up accelerator Y Combinator.
Biography
Loopt
Altman grew up in St. Louis and studied computer science at Stanford for two years before co-founding Loopt, a location-sharing app, in Y Combinator’s first batch in 2005. It sold in 2012.
Y Combinator
He became YC’s president in 2014, expanding it greatly and investing in companies such as Reddit, Airbnb and Stripe.
OpenAI
In 2015 he co-founded OpenAI with Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever and others as a non-profit research lab. He became CEO in 2019, created a for-profit arm and partnered with Microsoft. ChatGPT reached 100 million users within two months.
Boardroom crisis
In November 2023 OpenAI’s board fired him for not being “consistently candid”; after most staff threatened to quit, he was reinstated five days later. He also co-founded World (formerly Worldcoin) and invests in fusion energy through Helion.
Timeline
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1985
Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States
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2005
Co-founds Loopt
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2014
President of Y Combinator
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2015
Co-founds OpenAI
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2019
OpenAI CEO
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2022
ChatGPT launched
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2023
Fired and reinstated
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2025
OpenAI buys Jony Ive’s io
Did you know?
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1
He was the first person Y Combinator ever funded.
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2
He married Oliver Mulherin in 2024.
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3
He has testified to the US Senate about AI regulation.
Connections
Related people
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Greg Brockman
Technology · Co-founder and president of OpenAI
OpenAI co-founder
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Ilya Sutskever
Science · Deep-learning researcher who co-founded OpenAI and Safe Superintelligence
OpenAI co-founder
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Elon Musk
Technology · CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s richest person
OpenAI co-founder and rival
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Paul Graham
Technology · Co-founder of Y Combinator and influential essayist on start-ups
Y Combinator mentor
Also born on 22 April
Frequently asked
Who is Sam Altman?
Sam Altman is an American entrepreneur and investor who has been CEO of OpenAI since 2019 and oversaw the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, which started the generative-AI boom. He was previously president of the start-up accelerator Y Combinator.
How old is Sam Altman?
Sam Altman is 41 years old, born on 22 April 1985 in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Where is Sam Altman from?
Sam Altman was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
What is Sam Altman known for?
Sam Altman is best known for OpenAI CEO since 2019; ChatGPT; president of Y Combinator; Loopt; World (Worldcoin).
References
- Sam Altman — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Sam Altman — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Sam Altman — IMDb. IMDb. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Sam Altman — Hindi Wikipedia. Wikipedia (Hindi). Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Official website. blog.samaltman.com. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Sam Altman (Q7407093) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Sam Altman”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Sam Altman.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/sam-altman
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