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OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman is the latest billionaire to promise that he’ll give away the majority of his wealth. The Giving Pledge, a philanthropy gesture begun by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in 2010, asks that signatories “publicly commit to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropy either during their lifetimes or in their wills.”
Altman co-signed the pledge with his partner Oliver Mulherin earlier this month. Bloomberg estimated in April that Altman is worth more than $2 billion, with his wealth coming not from a stake in OpenAI but from investments in other tech companies.
“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,” they wrote in a letter announcing the commitment. “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.”