OpenAI Founder and CEO Sam Altman has seen his net worth soar to the $2 billion mark, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index. However, despite his leadership at the helm of the AI research firm, the company's financial success does not contribute to this figure.
This marks the first time the index has assessed the wealth of the 38-year-old, who gained prominence in the field of artificial intelligence through his role as CEO of OpenAI, which was recently valued at $86 billion.
According to a Bloomberg report, Altman has consistently stated that he does not hold equity in the company. Instead, much of his identifiable wealth is tied up in a network of VC funds and startup investments.
Furthermore, Altman's wealth is poised to increase with the forthcoming initial public offering of Reddit, in which he is among the largest shareholders.
Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, alleging breach of contractual agreements made when Musk helped establish the ChatGPT-maker in 2015.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in San Francisco, asserts that Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman initially approached Musk to create an open-source platform.
Musk alleges that the company's current focus on profit-seeking contradicts the original agreement to develop artificial intelligence technology for the benefit of humanity.
It's worth noting that Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI in 2015 but resigned from the company's board in 2018. Later, in October 2022, Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion.
OpenAI's chatbot, ChatGPT, became the world's fastest-growing software application within six months of its launch in November 2022.
Not only that, but ChatGPT also spurred the development of rival chatbots from companies like Microsoft, Alphabet, and a consortium of startups, which capitalized on the hype to secure billions in funding.
Since its debut, ChatGPT has been adopted by numerous companies for various tasks, including document summarization and computer code writing, triggering a race among Big Tech firms to launch their own generative AI-based offerings.