Why was OpenAI CEO Sam Altman only paid just over €70,000 last year?

OpenAI may be a company worth $157 billion (€145 billion) but its CEO Sam Altman received $76,001 (€72,000) in compensation last year, according to a tax filing that was just released. 

Altman, the mastermind behind the generative artificial intelligence (AI) model ChatGPT, said last year that he gets paid “whatever the minimum for health insurance is”. 

This modest income is up slightly from the $73,546 (€70,000) he received in 2022, which tax filings showed, but minimal when he is supposedly worth an estimated $2 billion (€1.9 billion), according to Bloomberg.

Altman makes most of his money from a multitude of investments, including in Reddit, Airbnb, Stripe, and Retro Biosciences. 

While he is an OpenAI investor, he has repeatedly said he does not own equity in the company.

OpenAI told Euronews Next in September that "the board has had discussions about whether it would be beneficial to the company” to compensate Altman but that "no specific figures have been discussed nor have any decisions been made".

High profile staff departures

Altman’s paycheck was revealed to the Internal Revenue Service, which collects US taxes and to which US-based nonprofits are required to submit information every year. 

The disclosure from 2023 was the year that OpenAI rose to prominence but also the year that saw the company’s board of directors firing Altman, sparking upheaval in the AI industry. 

The company later brought in another interim CEO before restoring Altman to his leadership role and replacing most of the board members who ousted him.

However, there have been several high-profile OpenAI staff exits since those events. 

OpenAI closed its non-profit in 2023 to become a for-profit company. The non-profit received $5 million (€4.7 million) in public contributions last year, according to the filing but the source of the funding was not disclosed.

The non-profit received $21 million (almost €20 million) of net assets at the end of 2023, which is much lower than the $6.6 billion (€6.2 billion) the company raised in October to support its ambition to build powerful AI.