OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed disappointment with the Democratic Party, saying it no longer aligns with the pro-innovation values he once shared, leaving him "politically homeless."
What Happened: Altman, 40, posted on X on Friday, celebrating America while sharing his frustrations with today's political climate.
"I am extremely proud to be an American," he wrote, adding, "I firmly believe this is the greatest country ever on Earth," before criticizing Democrats for veering away from a culture of entrepreneurship.
"I believe in techno-capitalism. We should encourage people to make tons of money and then also find ways to widely distribute wealth and share the compounding magic of capitalism," Altman said.
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"One doesn't work without the other; you cannot raise the floor and not also raise the ceiling for very long."
Altman, whose AI company powers ChatGPT, lamented that the Democrats once embraced those ideals but "have moved somewhere else at this point."
"So now I am politically homeless," he said.
He also criticized anti-billionaire rhetoric, saying, "I'd rather hear from candidates about how they are going to make everyone have the stuff billionaires have instead of how they are going to eliminate billionaires."
Why It's Important: According to Forbes, Altman currently has an estimated net worth of $1.7 billion. He dropped out of Stanford University in 2005 to launch the social mapping startup Loopt, which he sold in 2012 for $43 million and used the proceeds to establish his own venture fund.
Around that period, Altman also became a partner at the startup accelerator Y Combinator, eventually serving as its president from 2014 to 2019.
In 2019, he stepped down from YC to take on the role of CEO at OpenAI, although he was briefly ousted and reinstated in 2023.
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