Sam Altman, an American entrepreneur born on April 22, 1985, in Chicago, Illinois, is a prominent figure in the tech industry. He is known for his significant contributions to the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and his leadership roles at Y Combinator and OpenAI.

Early Career and Y Combinator

Altman attended Stanford University, where he studied computer science but dropped out after two years. In 2005, he founded Loopt, a location-based social networking app. Although Loopt was eventually acquired by Green Dot for $43 million, it was one of the first companies to receive funding from Y Combinator. Altman later became a partner at Y Combinator and eventually succeeded Paul Graham as its president in 2014. Under his leadership, Y Combinator helped numerous startups, including Airbnb, Reddit, and Twitch.

Founding of OpenAI

In 2015, Altman co-founded OpenAI, a nonprofit organization aimed at developing AI for the benefit of humanity. Alongside Elon Musk and other notable figures, Altman played a crucial role in securing $1 billion in funding for OpenAI. OpenAI's mission was to ensure that AI technology would be used safely and ethically.