OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s stake in Reddit is now worth more than a billion dollars thanks to a surge in the company’s stock price following a stellar earnings call.
Altman owns 12.2 million shares of Reddit. With the company’s stock price at $114 a share, that makes Altman’s stake in Reddit worth about $1.4 billion. Reddit shares surged 40% on Wednesday on the back of an earnings report that projected a rosy future. It reported 100 million daily users and turned a profit for the first time.
All of this turned out to be a win for Altman and Reddit’s other shareholders, including a mix of investors: Chinese tech company Tencent; Advance Magazine Publishers, the holding company of Conde Nast; and Vy Capital, a top-secret investment firm based in Dubai Elon Musk financed part of the Twitter acquisition.
Reddit is hardly Altman’s only investment expert. Before becoming one of the world’s most celebrated business and technology executives for his leadership of OpenAI, Altman was a prominent Silicon Valley investor. His perch atop the prestigious startup accelerator Y Combinator gave him access to a stream of young, talented executives eager for his guidance and money. Some of Altman’s most successful bets have been investments in startups that have become floundering Airbnb, Uberand the line.
Altman intersected with Reddit from the company’s early days. In 2005, Reddit co-founders Alexis Ohanian, Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz were in Y Combinator’s inaugural class (or “batch”), when it was still run by its founder Paul Graham. At the time, Altman was working on his first startup, called Loopt. In 2014, Altman would become president of Y Combinator, giving a first look at what would become prominent startups in its infancy.
In 2014, Altman ran Reddit $50 million Series B financing in one blog post announcing the investment, Altman harkened back to his time with Reddit’s founders when they were at Y Combinator.
“I was probably one of the first dozen people to use the site, and I shudder to imagine the number of hours I’ve spent there,” Altman wrote.
From there, Altman continued to invest in Reddit. In 2021, he raised $50 million in Reddit’s Series E raise. That year, Altman added $10 million to Reddit’s coffers as the company continued to raise money. His investments resulted in a large stake in the company, including voting shares.
When Reddit went public in March, Altman owned more shares than Huffman, who was the company’s CEO, according to Reddit. IPO prospectus.
Altman also served on Reddit’s board until 2021. In January 2022, Reddit announced that it would be stepping down from the board after seven years of service.
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