OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s stake in Reddit rose by $200 million to over $613 million following the social media company’s IPO debut. Shares of the 19-year-old company jumped 48% in New York Stock Exchange trading to close at $50.44. Sam Altman- who is among the biggest Reddit shareholders- has a control of 7.6% of outstanding shares after the offering, according to the company’s prospectus. This is behind only Condé Nast parent Advance Magazine Publishers and Chinese internet giant Tencent.
Can Sam Altman sell his Reddit shares?
Read more: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on IPO debut: ‘Best investors of my company are…’
But Sam Altman is restricted from selling Reddit shares for six months during the so-called lockup period.
What does Sam Altman’s investment portfolio look like?
Prior to the emergence of OpenAI in recent years, Sam Altman was best known as a startup investor and as the president of Y Combinator, a position he exited in 2019. His investment portfolio includes past or present stakes in Airbnb, Uber, Instacart, Stripe and Asana. His top bet is Reddit where he was also on the company board until January 2022 when the firm said he stepped down.
Sam Altman’s Reddit relationship
Read more: Reddit IPO’s Wall Street debut: Social media stock makes roaring start, closing up nearly 50%
In 2014, Sam Altman led Reddit’s $50 million Series B funding round, after using the service every day for nine years, he shared. At the time, he called the website “an example of something that started out looking like a silly toy for wasting time and has become something very interesting.”
In 2021, he invested a combined $60 million in Reddit over two financing rounds and the company’s filing shows Sam Altman invested $50 million at $42.47 per share and $10 million at $61.79 per share.
Read more: OpenAI’s Sam Altman picks this lawyer to fight Elon Musk case
This relieves some pressure for Sam Altman when it comes to profiting from OpenAI, where his tenure has been controversial as last year he was briefly fired by the OpenAI board which said it had lost confidence in his leadership. Although, he was brought back days later after immense pressure built up from employees and investors.
Sam Altman has earlier told US senators in a hearing last May that he’s not in OpenAI for the money and filings show he made about $73,500 in total compensation in 2022.
“I’m paid enough for health insurance, I have no equity in OpenAI,” Sam Altman said, when asked if he makes a lot of money in his job. “I’m doing this because I love it,” he added.
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