OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stands to net millions as Reddit goes public

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be in a position to make millions after Reddit goes public, thanks to a series of bets on the online discussion board company that go back to 2014. Altman holds 9.2% of voting power ahead of Reddit's initial public offering, according to information in the company's prospectus.

Altman, who is now reportedly keen to raise trillions for chip development that could help meet Microsoft-backed OpenAI's artificial intelligence computing demand, has invested in dozens of startups over the years. That includes Asana, which hit the New York Stock Exchange in 2020, and Instacart, which debuted on Nasdaq in September. Before OpenAI launched in 2015, Altman was president of Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator, giving him exposure to many small companies.

In 2014 Altman led Reddit's $50 million Series B funding round, after using the service every day for nine years, he wrote in a blog post.

"reddit is an example of something that started out looking like a silly toy for wasting time and has become something very interesting," he wrote. "It's been an important community for me over the years—I can find like-minded people that I can't always find in the real world."

In the first half of 2021, Reddit was raising a Series E round, and Altman invested $50 million.

Then, in the second half of the year, Altman sunk another $10 million into Reddit, as the company raised some $512 million in funding. By that point, Altman's $50 million investment from earlier in the year was up 45% in value.

The shares of Reddit's Class A and Class B stock are spread across five different entities, and they will give Altman more shares than even CEO Steve Huffman, according to Thursday's filing. Reddit has not yet told investors how