Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 171 posts

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

#51

Post by mrhottakes »

meowface wrote: post #33
boringg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

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

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

#52

Post by mrhottakes »

threethirtytwo wrote: post #45
skeeter2020 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

Have you asked all the legit clinical psychologists? Or are you just making things up because you're emotional?

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

#53

Post by mrhottakes »

boringg wrote: post #23
mrhottakes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look around at the country right now

Nothing to do with Altman v Musk. That would be an AI boom that would be going full steam ahead without either of them.

Musk has a lot to do with the state of the country right now. Do you read the news?

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

#54

Post by bfivyvysj »

meowface wrote: post #33
boringg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

We already reached agi a while ago.

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

#55

Post by JumpCrisscross »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #21

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 cr…

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/

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

#56

Post by elmomle »

meowface wrote: post #33
boringg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

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.

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

#57

Post by ambicapter »

boringg wrote: post #23
mrhottakes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look around at the country right now

Nothing to do with Altman v Musk. That would be an AI boom that would be going full steam ahead without either of them.

The AI boom started a war with Iran and dismantled American public institutions?

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

#58

Post by shimman »

avaer wrote: post #5
SkipperCat wrote: post #4

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.

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.

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.

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

#60

Post by boringg »

mrhottakes wrote: post #53
boringg wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing to do with Altman v Musk. That would be an AI boom that would be going full steam ahead without either of them.

Musk has a lot to do with the state of the country right now. Do you read the news?

You are really giving him a lot of credit here. Thats mostly the news cycle doing what it does - focusing on the big stories and loudest speakers.
Post reply on HN