OpenAI Co-Founder & CEO Sam Altman speaks onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco 2019 at Moscone Convention Center (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch)
Sam Altman may have just made a very public snub of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Altman, who may very well be the “King of AI,” is on a highly publicized visit to Israel and has made it clear he will not meet with the country’s controversial Prime Minister. Altman, however, is going to hold a personal meeting with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.
OpenAI cofounder and CEO Sam Altman was reported to have turned down the opportunity to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu. But Netanyahu’s office claimed that no meeting was ever planned or offered. This, however, seems to be inaccurate as people from Altman’s side told Israeli media that they were contacted by Netanyahu’s office about setting up a meeting, but no agreement was reached on holding one.
Israel’s business publication Calcalist, for example, reported that the reason for Sam Altman and Benjamin Netanyahu not holding a meeting is simple: Altman is on the side of Israel’s high-tech leaders who have taken a firm stand against Netanyahu’s government’s planned judicial reforms. His government is seeking to pass new laws that would end judicial review in Israel as a check on government actions and new laws. Some Israeli companies have even gone so far as to move their money out of the country in protest.
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For his part, Sam Altman has not commented on the matter. Perhaps he is simply being diplomatic. On Sunday he tweeted, “excited to visit Israel, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE, India, and South Korea this week!”
Sam Altman’s visit to Israel is being facilitated by the Microsoft Israel development center and will see Altman meet with employees at the Microsoft campus in Herzliya and several prominent Israeli tech entrepreneurs.
Altman, a prominent figure in the world of technology and artificial intelligence, is renowned for his previous role as president of the Y Combinator startup accelerator, a launchpad for many successful tech companies. Under Altman’s leadership, OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research lab, was founded and has since made significant strides in AI.
Sam Altman was born in St. Louis Missouri to a Jewish family in 1985. Altman studied computer science at Stanford, but never completed his B.A. When he was only 19-years-old, Altman co-founded Loopta location-based social networking mobile application, and managed to raise $30 million for the new company at such a young age.
Sam Altman joined Y Combinator, an American technology startup accelerator, and became its president just three years later. Then in 2015, he established YC Continuity, a $700 million equity fund investing in YC companies as they matured.
In March of this year, Sam Altman took part in a $180 million investment in Retro Biosciences, a medtech startup that says it will add 10 years to a healthy human lifespan, starting with cellular reprogramming, autophagy, and plasma-inspired therapeutics.
