Sam Altman
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, was raised in a Jewish family in St. Louis, Missouri. He has spoken publicly about his Jewish identity, but he does not appear to practice or discuss religion as a major part of his public life. In interviews and public statements, Altman has generally emphasized ideas such as technology, human progress, and the future rather than religious doctrine. His Jewish background nevertheless forms part of his personal identity and has occasionally surfaced in discussions about his upbringing and experiences.
Religion has also influenced Altman indirectly through the way he thinks about humanity's future and moral responsibility. Some of his comments about artificial intelligence touch on questions that have traditionally been addressed by religion: What makes human beings valuable? How should powerful technologies be used? What responsibilities do people have toward future generations? However, it would be too strong to claim that his views on AI are specifically derived from Judaism. Altman has described himself primarily through technological and philosophical ideas, and there is limited public evidence establishing a direct causal connection between specific Jewish teachings and his positions on AI.
Overall, the most defensible way to describe religion's influence on Altman is that Jewish identity and upbringing are part of his personal background, but religion is not a prominent or clearly documented foundation of his public philosophy. His thinking about AI, humanity, and the future draws from a broader mixture of technology, philosophy, economics, and personal experience.
Personal Details
Born
Samuel Harris Altman
April 22, 1985 (age 41)
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Height
5'10"
Residence
San Francisco, California, USA
Nationality
American
Family Heritage
Polish (Paternal Side), Russian (Maternal Side)
Religion
Political Party
Politically Homeless (2025 - present),
Democrat (until July 4, 2025)
Secondary School
Private
Education
Stanford University 2004 - 2005 dropped out
Spouse(s)
Oliver Mulherin - Software Engineer / Developer (2015 - m.2024)
Children
Son (Partner - Oliver Mulherin)
Relatives
Hobbies
Recreational pilot, Hiking, Racing Cars
Wealth Meter
Upbringing
Upper-Middle
Net Worth
$3.4B Forbes 2026 (#1251)
Wealth Contributors
Leveraged college connection(s), Partnered with college friend(s), Secured funding from investors, Team Achievement
Business/Public Service
Occupation
CEO, Investor
Organizations
ChatGPT (2022 - Owned by OpenAI),
Tools For Humanity (2019 - present - Co-founder),
OpenAI Global LLC (2015 - present - CEO),
Y Combinator (2012 - 2019 - President),
Hydrazine Capital LLC (2012 - present - Co-founder),
Loopt (2005 - Co-founder - sold in 2012 to Green Dot Corporation for $43.4M)
Industries
Technology
Business Partners
Greg Brockman - Jewish - Co-founder - OpenAI,
Wojciech Zaremba - Co-founder - OpenAI,
Ilya Sutskever - Jewish - Co-founder - OpenAI (Left in 2024),
John Schulman - Jewish - Co-founder - OpenAI (Left in 2024 to join Anthropic),
Andrej Karpathy - Co-founder - OpenAI (Left in 2024, now at Anthropic),
Alex Blania - Co-founder - Tools For Humanity,
Max Novendstern - Jewish - Co-founder - Tools For Humanity,
Elon Musk - Co-founder - OpenAI (Left in 2018),
Durk Kingma - Co-founder - OpenAI (Left in 2018 to join Anthropic),
Vicki Cheung - Co-founder - OpenAI (Left in 2018 to join Lyft),
Trevor Blackwell - Co-founder - OpenAI (Left in 2017),
Pamela Vagata - Co-founder - OpenAI (Left in 2016 to join Stripe),
Nick Sivo - Co-founder - Loopt (Met at Stanford),
Alok Deshpande - Co-founder - Loopt (Met at Stanford),
Peter Thiel - Jewish - Angel Investor / Many partnerships
Philanthropy
Non-Profit(s)
Real Estate Portfolio
2025 - San Francisco, CA, USA ($12.8M),
2025 - San Francisco, CA, USA ($12.8M),
2025 - San Francisco, CA, USA ($12.8M),
2021 - Kailua-Kona/Big Island, ($43M),
2020 - San Francisco, CA, USA ($27M),
2020 - Napa, CA, USA ($15.7M)
Net Worth and Donations
During 2024, the OpenAI Foundation awarded approximately $7.6 million in grants. The largest areas of funding among the top 7 donations were:
- Meridian Prime Inc.: $1 million
- UC Berkeley: $950,000
- Carnegie Mellon University: $950,000
- Stanford University: $524,000
- Harvard University: $518,000
- Turnio PBC: $500,000
- Operation HOPE: $500,000
References
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman
- https://www.jpost.com/influencers/50jews-23/article-757946
- https://www.businessinsider.com/stanford-university-tour-2014-6
- https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/12bi93r/chat_gpt_encryption/
- https://www.realtor.com/news/celebrity-real-estate/sam-altman-openai-hawaii-compound-update-house-attack/
- https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/indices/equity/sp-500/#overview
- Political Contributions – https://www.opensecrets.org/
- https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/
- https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/
- https://www.azquotes.com/
- https://www.brainyquote.com
- https://www.usaspending.gov/
- https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/




