First came Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, some put Elon Musk next and many believe it is now Sam Altman's turn. The chosen one to be the face of Silicon Valley, the tech genius who is setting the pace for the others. Aged 38, Altman is the standard-bearer of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. In just 12 months, since he launched ChatGPT, he has prompted the big technology companies to hastily change their priorities and focus on this new technology. Last week's turmoil at OpenAI gives us an idea of how highly valued Mr. Altman is. First, the shareholders' meeting declared that it had lost confidence in him and decided to dismiss him last Friday. On Monday, he was hired by Microsoft, which owns 49% of OpenAI, and that same day 95% of the staff threatened to leave if he was not reinstated. On Tuesday, the young executive returned to his post as CEO of OpenAI and promptly fired those who had ousted him. He returned with reinforced powers and with the explicit support of Microsoft's senior management.
First and foremost, he's no newcomer to the California jet set. In 2014, at the age of 29, Altman became the president of Y Combinator, the now iconic startup incubator from which companies like Airbnb, Dropbox and Twitch have emerged. A year later, he was tasked with running OpenAI, a startup that aimed to challenge Google for its outright leadership in AI development. He was selected for the position by Elon Musk, the then fashionable entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, and Peter Thiel, an early investor in Facebook and founder of Palantir Technologies. His relationship with Thiel remains healthy.
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