Sam Altman’s Reddit stake is worth more than $600 million after NYSE listing | Wilnesh News

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he has no equity stake in the $80 billion artificial intelligence startup he co-founded in 2015.

his Reddit Ownership is another matter entirely.

Altman’s stake in the social media site soared by $200 million after Reddit went public on Thursday, to more than $613 million. Shares of the 19-year-old company rose 48% to $50.44 in New York Stock Exchange trading.

Altman, 38, is one of Reddit’s largest shareholders, controlling 7.6% of outstanding shares after the offering, according to the company’s announcement. prospectus.Behind only Condé Nast parent Advance Magazine Publishers and Chinese internet giants Tencent.

Like other insiders, Altman is prohibited from selling Reddit stock for six months during a so-called lockup period.

Before the emergence of OpenAI in recent years, most notably due to the popularity of its ChatGPT chatbot, Altman was best known as a startup investor and president of Y Combinator, a position he exited in 2019. Altman’s portfolio includes past or current holdings Airbnb, Uber, Instant shopping cartstripes and Asana.

Reddit is one of his biggest bets.He even served as a member of the company’s board of directors until around January 2022, when the company explain He recently resigned.

Altman, who led Reddit’s $50 million Series B in 2014, wrote in a post after nine years of using the service daily Blog article. He called the site “an example of something that at first seemed like a silly toy wasting time, but has become very interesting.”

In 2021, as the tech market boomed, Altman invested a total of $60 million in Reddit across two rounds of funding. Those investments haven’t borne much fruit yet, as Reddit’s valuation remains below its private market peak even after Thursday’s gains. Reddit filings show Altman invested $50 million at $42.47 a share and $10 million at $61.79 a share.

However, the money he invested ten years ago has doubled several times.

This helps relieve pressure on Altman, whose tenure has been controversial for other reasons, to profit from OpenAI. Late last year, Altman was briefly fired from OpenAI’s board of directors, which said it had lost confidence in his leadership. He was recalled days later, amid intense pressure from employees and investors.

Earlier this month, OpenAI said Altman would rejoin the board following the conclusion of an internal investigation by U.S. law firm WilmerHale into the events that led to Altman’s ouster.

ultraman tell the senator At a hearing last May, he said he was not in his current job for the money. filing His total compensation in 2022 is shown to be approximately $73,500.

When Sen. John F. Kennedy, R-Louisiana, asked him if he made a lot of money on the job, Altman said, “My health insurance salary is enough, but I don’t have equity in OpenAI.” “I do It’s because I love it.”

—CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian and Jordan Novet contributed to this report

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