OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is positioned to earn millions following Reddit’s forthcoming initial public offering (IPO). Altman has a 9.2% voting power stake in the company, as stated in the prospectus shared by Reddit. His involvement with Reddit dates back to 2014 when he led a $50 million Series B funding round for the platform.
Altman, widely known for investing in various startups including Asana and Instacart, further invested $50 million in Reddit’s Series E round in 2021. Later that year, he invested an additional $10 million, increasing the value of his initial investment by 45%.
Interestingly, Altman will own more Reddit shares than CEO Steve Huffman, owing to the spread of Reddit’s Class A and Class B stock across five different entities. Altman, who was a board member of Reddit till as recently as 2021, has made a significant impact on the company, as acknowledged by Huffman.
Now, Altman is focusing on promoting OpenAI’s services, including the popular ChatGPT chatbot. His position towards partial ownership by the platform’s users is positive. In his 2014 blog post, he expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that users, who contribute significantly to platforms like Reddit, don’t own any of it.
He also mentioned that 10% of shares from the Series B round went to Reddit users, expressing hope for increased community ownership over time.
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