OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s stake in Reddit rose by $200 million to over $613 million following the social media company’s IPO debut. Shares of the 19-year-old company jumped 48% in New York Stock Exchange trading to close at $50.44. Sam Altman- who is among the biggest Reddit shareholders- has a control of 7.6% of outstanding shares after the offering, according to the company’s prospectus. This is behind only Condé Nast parent Advance Magazine Publishers and Chinese internet giant Tencent.
But Sam Altman is restricted from selling Reddit shares for six months during the so-called lockup period.
Prior to the emergence of OpenAI in recent years, Sam Altman was best known as a startup investor and as the president of Y Combinator, a position he exited in 2019. His investment portfolio includes past or present stakes in Airbnb, Uber, Instacart, Stripe and Asana. His top bet is Reddit where he was also on the company board until January 2022 when the firm said he stepped down.
In 2014, Sam Altman led Reddit’s $50 million Series B funding round, after using the service every day for nine years, he shared. At the time, he called the website “an example of something that started out looking like a silly toy for wasting time and has become something very interesting.”