OpenAI CEO Sam Altman just pledged to give away most of his fortune

OpenAI founder and CEO has made a pledge to give away most of his huge fortune. 

The 39-year-old tech entrepreneur is worth an estimated $2 billion – but in a staggering display of generosity, he and his husband Oliver Mulherin have signed the Giving Pledge, vowing to give most of it away to good causes. 

The Giving Pledge was started by fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in 2010 and encourages the world’s richest people to donate most of their wealth. 

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Its founders note: “The Giving Pledge is a moral commitment – not a legally binding one.

“It is a simple proposition, encouraging more of the world’s wealthiest people to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.

“The Giving Pledge is inspired by the example set by millions of people who give generously, and often at great personal sacrifice, to make the world a better place.

“The Giving Pledge is a long-term effort to change the norms of philanthropy among the world’s wealthiest people.” 

And on May 18, OpenAI’s Altman and Mulherin became the two newest members of the philanthropic club. 

In a letter, the couple wrote: “We would not be making this pledge if it weren’t for the hard work, brilliance, generosity, and dedication to improve the world of many people that built the scaffolding of society that let us get here.

“There is nothing we can do except feel immense gratitude and commit to pay it forward, and do what we can to build the scaffolding up a little higher.

“We intend to focus our giving on supporting technology that helps create abundance for people, so that they can then build the scaffolding even higher.”

Altman, who initially funded OpenAI alongside Elon Musk, joins a host of big names from numerous industries, including Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, David Rockerfella, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, and MacKenzie Scott.

In total, there are currently 245 pledges from 30 different countries.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is not on the list, but in 2022 he separately vowed to give away ‘most of his money to charity’. 

Speaking to CNN at the time, he said: “The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way – it is not easy.

 “Building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work and a bunch of very smart teammates. Philanthropy is very similar.

“It is really hard and there are a bunch of ways you can do ineffective things, too. We are building the capacity to be able to give away this money.”