As the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman has become the face of the generative AI movement.
Prior to heading up OpenAI, he was president of Y Combinator, one of the most successful startup accelerators in the world, from 2014 to 2019.
Behind the scenes, Altman is a remarkably active angel investor — with over 100 investments since 2010, including rounds to Stripe, Reddit, and Instacart.
In addition to his individual investments, he is the founder of VC firm Hydrazine Capital and investment fund Apollo Projects, launched with his brothers Max and Jack Altman. Altman Capital, which is managed by Jack, also counts Sam as a limited partner.
His investments highlight wide-ranging interests, including lab-grown meat, longevity, energy, education — and, of course, artificial intelligence.
We mapped out Sam Altman’s universe of portfolio companies by category since 2019. We also note where companies have publicly disclosed a relationship with OpenAI.
Below the graphic, we break down the most notable areas of activity.
Sam Altman’s investments overlap with OpenAI’s strategy
Several of the companies Altman has backed also have relationships with OpenAI. For instance, Altman has backed 3 rounds to Humane, which recently released its “Ai Pin” — a wearable device whose core feature is a personal assistant powered by ChatGPT.
Two of Altman’s other investments — B2B payments automation platform Slope (Series B) and coding assistant Warp (Series B) — have both disclosed that OpenAI’s models are in part powering their products.
Meanwhile, OpenAI signed a letter of intent to spend $51M on AI chips from Rain in 2019. Altman had previously invested in the company’s seed round.
AI-powered language learning app Speak, whose Series A Altman backed in 2022, has since raised successive rounds from OpenAI’s Startup Fund and other investors.
While OpenAI is not an investor in the OpenAI Startup Fund (the fund’s backers include Microsoft and other OpenAI partners), Speak said its Series B raise “unlocks a deeper relationship where OpenAI’s systems will power more of Speak’s user experience, and Speak will gain advanced access to new systems in development.”
With $40B of fresh capital, OpenAI will likely become increasingly acquisitive, focusing on two key areas, infrastructure (building the base for continued growth at the foundational level) and applications (focusing on revenue-generation as the company transitions to for profit).
Three new investments from the last twelve months stand out:
1) AirOps (Jun ’24 via Alt Capital): A platform that allows users to create, test, deploy, and scale AI applications.
2) CrewAI (Oct ’24 via Alt Capital): A platform for building, deploying, and managing AI agents.
3) Exowatt (Apr ’24): Renewable energy company that provides modular solutions for energy generation and storage.
Two biggest bets Outside of AI are in energy & longevity
In November 2021, Sam Altman contributed $375M to nuclear fusion startup Helion’s $500M Series E raise — his largest personal investment to date.
Altman wrote on his blog at the time of the investment: “Helion is by far the most promising approach to fusion I’ve seen.” In May 2023, OpenAI-backer Microsoft signed an agreement to buy electricity from Helion later this decade.
Altman’s other major bet is anti-aging startup Retro Biosciences. He’s invested a total of $180M in the company, which aims to extend life spans via cellular reprogramming.
Notable exits
Altman has invested in numerous edtech startups over the years. One of them — Codecademy, which he backed in 2011 — was acquired for $525M by SkillSoft in December 2021.
Other early investments that went on to exit include Instacart (the company IPO’d in September 2023) and Cruise (acquired by General Motors in 2016).
In addition, Altman is behind 3 SPACs:
- AltC Acquisition Corp., where he is executive officer, is planning a merger with nuclear fission startup Oklo (where he is chairman of the board).
- He is on the board of directors for Bridgetown Holdings, which merged with fintech MoneyHero in October 2023, and Bridgetown 2 Holdings, which merged with proptech company PropertyGuru in 2022.