Sam Altman—Altman personally invested in Rain AI while OpenAI signed $51M letter of intent to buy its chips
Sam Altman held a personal investment in Rain AI, an AI chip startup, while OpenAI in 2019 signed a non-binding letter of intent to spend $51 million on Rain's chips. This represented a potential conflict of interest where Altman would personally benefit from a deal made by the company he led. The conflict was among the governance concerns raised during the November 2023 board crisis.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Undisclosed Conflicts | +toward | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.429 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.57)
Evidence (1 signal)
Reports revealed Altman held personal stake in Rain AI while OpenAI signed $51M chip deal with the company
Multiple reports confirmed that Sam Altman held a personal investment in Rain AI, an AI chip startup, while OpenAI in 2019 signed a non-binding letter of intent to spend $51 million on Rain's chips. This represented a conflict of interest where Altman would personally profit from a deal his company was entering into.