Sam Altman on why he is okay with a 'low' salary and no equity as OpenAI CEO: 'This is my childhood dream job’

For CEO Sam Altman, working at OpenAI is a labour of love.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says he accepts a salary lesser than most leading CEOs because he loves his work. The 39-year-old co-founder of the artificial intelligence company also did not take any equity in OpenAI when it launched in late 2015, he shared at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit last week.

Altman said he makes $76,000 per year and is more focused on simply getting ahead of the AI arms race. According to a recent tax filing obtained by Bloomberg, the OpenAI  CEO took a $76,001 salary in 2023.

“This is my childhood dream job,” CNBC Make It quoted him as saying. “Getting to work on [artificial general intelligence] and...getting to sit in the room with the smartest researchers in the world and go on this crazy adventure, like that is what I always wanted to do.”

Altman had turned down an equity stake because he felt he needed to show he could keep his personal and professional interests separate, he shared the All-In podcast earlier this year. Moreover, OpenAI is a nonprofit company with a for-profit arm that Altman runs and the company needed a majority disinterested board to qualify for nonprofit status.

OpenAI has recently been estimated to be worth $157 billion, which means that even if Altman had a 1 percent stake, he would be worth $1.57 billion. But the CEO said he doesn’t need the money. Altman is already a billionaire, with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion, thanks to the equity he owns in Reddit, Stripe, and nuclear fusion firm Helion, Forbes reported.

And working at OpenAI is a labour of love, he said. “I think it should at least be understandable that that is worth more to me than any additional money,” CNBC Make It quoted Altman as saying.