3 ms·

Sam Altman was raising a VC fund when OpenAI fired him

61 points by mfiguiere 3y ago

rajaman0 3y ago
This article presents no source for this claim, and the rest of the article is re-hashing stuff that has been well covered This is clickbait - publications should report on facts and confirmed sources, not speculate and try to get clicks.
- minimaxir 3y ago
  "according to a person familiar with the matter" is a source.
  - ohdannyboy 3y ago
    No it isn't. It's a plea from a journalist to trust that they actually have one and have the judgement to vet if the source is any good. It's no more credible than the reporter, and I've never heard of this one.
    - superhumanuser 3y ago
      Could the OC be sarcasm? Perhaps they forgot the /s?
- freedomben 3y ago
  Being riddled with ads also doesn't increase my trust level. This really seems like their attempt to capitalize on the crazy level of interest right now.
  - RadixDLT 3y ago
    lol, if you were using brave browser you will see no ads
    - freedomben 3y ago
      I didn't actually see the ads (I use uMatrix), but they have boxes outlining where the ads would normally go.
    - bordercases 3y ago
      Brave Browser is privacy cope: https://digdeeper.neocities.org/articles/browsers#brave https://digdeeper.neocities.org/articles/browsers#brave And even if you don't use BAT, it is still an ad-driven business.
  - dkarras 3y ago
    I mean even the first sentence of the article is factually incorrect. He did not "step down".
dedpool 3y ago
[flagged]
tonyhb 3y ago
Plenty of people invest on the side, founders or not. It's not uncommon.
gbolcer 3y ago
First rule of startups. Never lie to your board. Second rule, never lie to your CEO.
ianhawes 3y ago
> Altman, unusually, didn’t have equity in OpenAI > Altman was part of the original group of tech leaders that invested $1 billion to launch OpenAI in 2015 Err, does he have equity or does he not?
- jedberg 3y ago
  Not. He put up money for the non-profit that was basically a donation.
- next_xibalba 3y ago
  It was founded as a non-profit. So that $1B was not in exchange for equity. They changed to a capped profit model in 2019. As part of this, Open AI Global LLC was created. This for profit (capped at 100x initial investment) is controlled by the original OpenAI LLC. Employees were granted something like profit participation/equity in Open AI Global LLC, and new investments went into this entity under similar terms. Altman has repeatedly claimed no equity, so, taking him at his word, he did not participate in whatever the profit participation/equity arrangement that was made for employees and new investors.
neonate 3y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20231118004057/https://www.semafor.com/article/11/17/2023/openai-board-fires-sam-altman https://web.archive.org/web/20231118004057/https://www.semaf... https://archive.ph/vbt3I https://archive.ph/vbt3I

61 points by mfiguiere 3y ago

This article presents no source for this claim, and the rest of the article is re-hashing stuff that has been well covered This is clickbait - publications should report on facts and confirmed sources, not speculate and try to get clicks.

minimaxir 3y ago
"according to a person familiar with the matter" is a source.
- ohdannyboy 3y ago
  No it isn't. It's a plea from a journalist to trust that they actually have one and have the judgement to vet if the source is any good. It's no more credible than the reporter, and I've never heard of this one.
  - superhumanuser 3y ago
    Could the OC be sarcasm? Perhaps they forgot the /s?
freedomben 3y ago
Being riddled with ads also doesn't increase my trust level. This really seems like their attempt to capitalize on the crazy level of interest right now.
- RadixDLT 3y ago
  lol, if you were using brave browser you will see no ads
  - freedomben 3y ago
    I didn't actually see the ads (I use uMatrix), but they have boxes outlining where the ads would normally go.
  - bordercases 3y ago
    Brave Browser is privacy cope: https://digdeeper.neocities.org/articles/browsers#brave https://digdeeper.neocities.org/articles/browsers#brave And even if you don't use BAT, it is still an ad-driven business.
- dkarras 3y ago
  I mean even the first sentence of the article is factually incorrect. He did not "step down".

dedpool 3y ago

[flagged]

tonyhb 3y ago

Plenty of people invest on the side, founders or not. It's not uncommon.

gbolcer 3y ago

First rule of startups. Never lie to your board. Second rule, never lie to your CEO.

ianhawes 3y ago

> Altman, unusually, didn’t have equity in OpenAI > Altman was part of the original group of tech leaders that invested $1 billion to launch OpenAI in 2015 Err, does he have equity or does he not?

jedberg 3y ago
Not. He put up money for the non-profit that was basically a donation.
next_xibalba 3y ago
It was founded as a non-profit. So that $1B was not in exchange for equity. They changed to a capped profit model in 2019. As part of this, Open AI Global LLC was created. This for profit (capped at 100x initial investment) is controlled by the original OpenAI LLC. Employees were granted something like profit participation/equity in Open AI Global LLC, and new investments went into this entity under similar terms. Altman has repeatedly claimed no equity, so, taking him at his word, he did not participate in whatever the profit participation/equity arrangement that was made for employees and new investors.

neonate 3y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20231118004057/https://www.semafor.com/article/11/17/2023/openai-board-fires-sam-altman https://web.archive.org/web/20231118004057/https://www.semaf... https://archive.ph/vbt3I https://archive.ph/vbt3I