Sam Altman's Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny Ahead of OpenAI's IPO

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11vuio0pswjnm7 about 3 hours ago 74 commentsRead Article on wsj.com

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Discussion (74 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

IG_Semmelweiss•about 1 hour ago

The thesis is as follows:

OpenAI receives funds as a non-profit.

Some of those funds are redirected to for profit ventures.

Critically, the GM (Altman) of the nonprofit owns shares of the for-profit ventures, that OpenAI funds were redirected into.

A regular company could and does invest in any company even when there's a conflict, as long as the conflict is disclosed and the Board votes in favor of it. There's no criminal element there.

The problem is introduced in Altman's case if

(a) there was no disclosure (red flag) and/or

(b) nonprofit that received the funds, is putting money into things not aligned with the 501(c)(3) mission.

I'm not sure if either (a) or (b) are criminal, but they don't pass the smell test, which is why Altman is being sued in civil court, unrelated to the congressional investigation talked about in the article

JumpCrisscross•about 1 hour ago

The thesis is Altman ran around saying he was building something that will kill everyone, then backed off to saying he’ll just kill everyone’s jobs.

When data centers and a war of choice pushed inflation to 7+% [1], Republicans in the Congress were left scrambling for a scapegoat. And Sam is a terrific scapegoat. He has no public shareholders like the more hated Zuckerberg and Bezos [2]. Yet he has carved for himself a uniquely-visibly throne for a private-company boss. (His only rival for scapegoatiness is Musk. But he’s inoculated from Republicans by his blatant partisanship.)

[1] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm 0.6% MoM in April, 0.9% MoM in March

[2] https://techoversight.org/2025/06/11/tech-ceo-poll-25/

mywittyname•23 minutes ago

Also, doesn't musk hate him? I have to imagine he's behind this.

JumpCrisscross•22 minutes ago

> have to imagine he's behind this

Is Musk probably throwing fuel on the fire? Yes, probably. (Though we have no proof of this.)

Is Musk causing this? No. This is mainly Altman’s doing. The hyperbole. The lying. The leverage. The pomp. Even Zuckerberg and Bezos haven’t painted a target on themselves like he has. (To the point that I’m borderline sympathetic.)

boringg•about 1 hour ago

Doesn't Sam Altman famously not own OpenAI? His whole arrangement is so shady.

meowface•about 1 hour ago

Is there a more benign explanation for these things? Altman is undeniably famously cagey and political but despite most of the tech and non-tech worlds at this point seeing him as some kind of con artist, I still kind of want to try to believe he's not.

No doubt some of OpenAI's founding principles like "stop + assist if a competitor gets to AGI first" are likely flying out the window, perhaps in part due to him and also as one might anticipate of initial lofty ideals and promises, but even with the recent New Yorker and other articles he seems like someone who maybe regularly placates people to avoid personal problems and lies to get out of trouble rather than a Machiavellian tech baron.

mcmcmc•about 1 hour ago

> he seems like someone who maybe regularly placates people to avoid personal problems and lies to get out of trouble rather than a Machiavellian tech baron.

This would be more plausible were it not for the staggering amount of wealth he’s amassed through those lies.

mrhottakes•about 1 hour ago

When someone tells you who they are, you should believe them.

jjulius•30 minutes ago

> ... I still kind of want to try to believe he's not.

Asking genuinely - why?

bfivyvysj•about 1 hour ago

We already reached agi a while ago.

elmomle•about 1 hour ago

He will say whatever it takes to get the result he wants. That's manipulative and, when pursued as a lifestyle, sociopathic.

Living like that is corrupting. When you treat humans like objects, the question of your starting intentions is really secondary.

fauigerzigerk•about 1 hour ago

>The problem is introduced in Altman's case if (a) there was no disclosure (red flag)

The article says the investments were disclosed:

"OpenAI board chairman Bret Taylor defended Altman in a court hearing Monday, testifying that Altman had been “forthright” and “proactive and transparent” about his involvements in other companies. Altman recused himself from recent discussions about a deal between OpenAI and Helion as well, The Wall Street Journal reported."

randerson•about 1 hour ago

Even if the board votes in favor, wouldn't it be tax evasion to fund a for-profit corporation using a 503(c)(3) - which is tax deductible for donors?

yieldcrv•about 1 hour ago

No, non profits can invest in anything. Publicly traded stocks are c-corps too, thats how endowments grow. There is nothing that distinguishes liquid vs illiquid c-corp shares.

Regarding founder ownership, the rules are extremely flexible like a non profit director can’t own more than 20 voting or 35% total of the business venture

but if it happens then it just needs to be remedied within 3 years

so for venture style deals that’s plenty of time to dilute down, and the little known secret in the startup space is that the founders non profit steps in as the lead investor, so all the other investors arent just twiddling their thumbs waiting for a founder to convince someone, it just closes. Other investors dilute founder and non profit, everything is compliant, value is created. Both for profit and non profit side will be tax free, due to QSBS

s1artibartfast•27 minutes ago

some of the largest for profit investors are non-profits.

It is all about if you can get the money back out.

ajross•about 1 hour ago

That is emphatically NOT the thesis of the linked article. That's the argument made by the politicians being quoted and enumerated. What the article is trying to tell you is that these actions are entirely partisan, and reflect the desires and statements of the largest and wealthiest republican donor, who happens to own a competing interest.

You can think Altman is a bad person and OpenAI is something of a scam and still recognize that using the government as a tool to corruptly hobble your competition is a horrifyingly bad thing.

These are awful times we live in, I really fear what we'll have to be telling our grandkids. Will it be just a cautionary tale about the dangers of populism and partisanship or will it be sad, wistful tales about how much better things were... "before"?

cyanydeez•about 1 hour ago

no, the thesis is: can the fascists control sam altman.

baggachipz•2 minutes ago

> Business Dealings Under GOP Scrutiny

Is this even a thing anymore?

tlogan•18 minutes ago

I am sure that nothing illegal was done here.

But the fact that OpenAI was a nonprofit and then suddenly became a for-profit is definitely something that does not feel right. I am 100% sure that it is all legal and such, but we have this mental model that “nonprofits are the good guys, run by people who just want to help humanity and nothing else.”

But that is not true, and probably never was.

an0malous•11 minutes ago

The whole idea of a non profit never made any sense, it’s conflating the idea of profitability with altruism. These are completely independent things.

graemep•about 1 hour ago

> The moves follow an April article in The Wall Street Journal that detailed Altman’s efforts to have OpenAI back companies he personally invested in.

Sounds a bit like Wework.

baggachipz•about 1 hour ago

Everything about OpenAI sounds like WeWork. Can't wait to see that S1, I'll need a truckload of popcorn.

bombcar•about 1 hour ago

To be fair, a big part of being in Y Combinator itself is being "heavily encouraged" to use products from other Y Combinators. You just have to do it openly.

graemep•25 minutes ago

Networking and relationship building is fine. its when it goes beyond that, and in particular when there are conflicts of interest, it becomes a problem. Altman seems to have had similar issues when he was at YC: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may...

Doing business with companies connected to the CEO often creates a conflict of interest. it could all be OK, of course, but OpenAI investing in companies that Altman has already invested in does not look great and needs to be investigated.

skeeter2020•about 1 hour ago

The Internet is borked.

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SkipperCat•about 2 hours ago

I can't help but think that this is due to Musk putting pressure on the current administration to help him win his lawsuit and punish Altman.

avaer•about 2 hours ago

Personal vendettas between the world's most powerful psychopaths playing out in the stock market while everyone else suffers does seem like the current meta. So it makes sense.

shimman•35 minutes ago

I'm all for it, let them attack each other and hopefully the backlash will elect a labor President to turn the final screws on knee capping big tech for the next 50 years.

threethirtytwo•about 1 hour ago

God why do people frame things in such extremes? Neither person is a psychopath. If anyone is closer to a psychopath it’s Altman, but he doesn’t completely fit the monicker.

skeeter2020•about 1 hour ago

When you're arguing the degree to which such powerful people fit the definition of psychopath, you're at extremes. You've just been in the warming pot too long to see it.

thinkingtoilet•about 1 hour ago

They are absolutely psychopaths. These are people that will flagrantly lie to your face and feel no remorse. They cause mass suffering and feel no remorse. They don't have empathy. They don't have normal human emotions.

tremon•about 1 hour ago

Haven't you heard? Psychopath, like Pedophile, is a mere epithet these days, to indicate a person's favoured status with the in-crowd. In contrast to the equally meaningless epithet "woke".

MrBuddyCasino•about 2 hours ago

How does everyone else suffer? We’re getting subsidized compute.

mrhottakes•about 2 hours ago

Look around at the country right now

pj_mukh•about 2 hours ago

So, the protection racket is not working? [1] Maybe some folks need to re-think whether this administration is worth "donating" to?

[1]: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openai-exec-becomes-top-trump...

dmix•about 2 hours ago

This story is about congressmen and state attorneys calling for an SEC investigation, not the executive

Which was motivated by a WSJ investigation into Sam’s personal dealings https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chatgpt-openai-ipo-altman-029ae6...

pj_mukh•about 1 hour ago

and famously this executive doesn't over-reach to protect "its own"?

dmix•about 1 hour ago

Your original comment implied that this is a signal that Sam’s influence over the admin hasn’t protected his interests, when that’s still to be seen. The protection racket could still very well benefit him if the SEC ends up taking the case and the admin then tries to interfere with SEC’s independence.

laurels-marts•about 2 hours ago

Are you complaining that government is not corrupt enough?

mrhottakes•about 2 hours ago

That seems like a fairly obvious misreading of the comment.

miltonlost•about 2 hours ago

He's saying "hey, maybe stop donating to Republicans expecting them to help you out when in reality they will screw over anyone but themselves and especially don't donate to them when the GOP is aggressively homophobic and wants to get rid of your existence entirely"

tinfoilhatter•about 1 hour ago

I didn't see anything related to homophobia in the comment or any replies except yours...

throwaway5752•about 1 hour ago

Blackmailers and protection rackets aren't known for being satisfied after a single payment, after they've established someone is willing to pay.

That is why public corruption is such as plague and one of the reasons the US dollar was seen as a safe store of value once.

voakbasda•about 2 hours ago

Does anyone really believe this is more than performative? Increasingly the most likely outcome of such scrutiny is… nothing. He hasn’t stolen enough from the rich to earn any sort of punishment, and he’s not doing anything too different from the Congress critters that are “investigating” him.

baggachipz•about 1 hour ago

When his company goes tits-up and connected investors lose billions, he'll suddenly face punishment.

boringg•about 1 hour ago

"hasn’t stolen enough from the rich to earn any sort of punishment". Do you truly believe this is how the world works?

bluefirebrand•about 1 hour ago

Its definitely how America works right now

JumpCrisscross•about 1 hour ago

> Do you truly believe this is how the world works?

It’s a popular meme in Silicon Valley. Hence all the stealing.

bluecheese452•35 minutes ago

Ah a shakedown. He will make the required donation and this will go away.

trwhite•about 2 hours ago

https://archive.ph/oqVDm

ms_anal_tam•about 2 hours ago

Demand his AI chat history be made public!

noelsusman•about 1 hour ago

The notion that this GOP Oversight Committee sincerely cares about corruption is obviously laughable, so I can only assume this is all being done at Elon's behest.

jqpabc123•about 3 hours ago

This can easily be resolved by a sustantial purchase of Trump family crypto.

swader999•about 2 hours ago

With worldcoin lol.

smallmancontrov•about 1 hour ago

The Khan demands 10,000 eyeballs as tribute!

metalliqaz•about 1 hour ago

Altman is a consummate liar and insatiably greedy. The GOP will welcome him in. The downfall will hurt many.

In the words of Hitchens, "Do not imagine that you can escape judgment if you rob people with a false prospectus rather than with a knife."

fred_is_fred•about 2 hours ago

Is this why Claude recommended that I use a Trump phone when I use it?