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Comment by jaggederest | Hacker News Reader

I'm as skeptical of OpenAI's dealings as anyone, but a $1m investment in a chip startup doesn't sound like he's a material owner. They've raised $33 million so far, minus the whole Prosperity7 divestiture kerfluffle (national security made a saudi-backed fund sell), so I'd be surprised if he owned in excess of 5%.

It looks to me like exactly the kind of investment I would expect a wealthy angel to make in startups related to their interests, not undue bias.

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Again the argument: "I am so rich I would not possibly be dishonest for such a small amounts..." ?

Not exactly what I'm saying. I'm saying that it doesn't look like he has undue influence over the deal, rather than that he's not trying to make a buck. No claim about his honesty or lack thereof, but it doesn't look like a puppet constructed solely to enrich himself.

How do you know this startup didn't need this deal to survive or advertise itself?

I definitely don't. I just read the article and went "Whoah is he just openly cutting himself a check?" and it does not seem that way. If I were him, I would recuse myself from the whole process due to my investment, but we have no insider knowledge of how it went down. I've really been unhappy with the transition from nonprofit to for-profit subsidiary, so obviously I disagree pretty thoroughly, but fundamentally this deal isn't immediately disqualifying.

I do wonder if this kind of thing was related to his ouster-and-return, but it happened in 2019 so it would need to be a pattern of behavior beyond what we see in the article.

Man I would love if one of our minority shareholder angels told us they'll arrange the purchase of $51M worth of product. Imagine having 10 of those.

Probably a great way to increase equity

Never thought diversifying investments would have this advantage but it makes sense now.

If someone could explain the dishonest part to a simpleton like me it would be sincerely appreciated.

So he has an incentive to do business with a chip maker that he invested in. But that's allowed right? Or is the argument more that it's like insider trading (investing?) because he knew he might announce business with it in the future? Since it's not publicly traded, I don't even know if that's unethical.

He is not the owner of OpenAI so it can be considered harmful to the company if there was a better chip maker or deal available but he chose the one he has a personal take in.

It would be very hard to prove that choosing company A over company B was a knowingly worse choice for OpenAI though.

You falsely assume that dishonesty has been established.

I tried to find estimates of Sam's net worth and found estimates from 250-700 million usd. However, it seems that most of his net worth is bound up in equity in private companies and startups[1]. 1 million usd could be a very substantial part of his liquid net worth.

[1] https://www.thestreet.com/investors/sam-altman-net-worth-how...

For anyone who’s been in the high level SF tech scene for >15 years, $1M is not a substantial part of their liquid net worth. Certainly not for anyone who was in PGs inner circle 15 years ago.

A lot is relative. It's not a lot to be sitting in a bank or index fund. That's different from having it tied up in a risky private investment.

Also, depending how early he was, he could own significantly more than 5%.

Sam Altman claimed to have written a $375 million check from his own money to invest in Helion Energy. Maybe when all the lawsuits happen we will know more about his investments.

Like a literal check, or a proverbial check where his illiquid assets serve as collateral to a bank who writes the check?

I'm not finding the quote, but he has claimed it in front of an audience. I should point out that he is Executive Chair of Helion so I assume he still has some control over how the money is spent.

  One of those bets is on the fusion power startup Helion Energy, into which he’s poured more than $375 million, he told CNBC in 2021. The other is Retro, to which Altman cut checks totaling $180 million the same year.

  “It’s a lot. I basically just took all my liquid net worth and put it into these two companies,” Altman says.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/08/1069523/sam-altm...

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