On April 17, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s side business blurred the boundaries between the company’s interests and his personal interests. Altman's personal investments remain opaque ahead of the initial public offering, making it difficult for outsiders to detect possible conflicts of interest.

Ultraman is controversial

In 2023, when Altman was briefly dismissed and later reappointed as OpenAI CEO, the company's board of directors was concerned because they knew little about Altman's personal investments and whether these investments would constitute a potential conflict of interest.

The newly formed board promised to fix the problem, but the problem never really went away.As OpenAI accelerates its planned IPO this year, valuing the company at $850 billion, the question remains: How to determine whether company decisions are in OpenAI’s best interests or in Ultraman’s personal interests.

Let the company invest in your personal side business

Recently, Altman asked OpenAI to lead a round of financing for nuclear fusion startup Helion.Previously, Helion failed to deliver on its promise to deliver breakthrough energy technology and began to run short of funds. Altman is one of Helion's largest investors, with a significant portion of his net worth tied to the company.

Altman is also seeking to have OpenAI support Stoke Space, a rocket maker aiming to challenge Elon Musk's SpaceX, according to people familiar with the matter. Altman holds a stake in the company through his venture capital firm-turned-family office Hydrazine, financial ties that have not previously been reported.

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Currently, neither investment is part of OpenAI's core business. Moreover, OpenAI recently told employees that the company needs to cut side projects and focus on responding to growing competitive pressure.

After becoming a sought-after startup in Silicon Valley in recent years, OpenAI's lead in the AI ​​race is slipping.Altman himself does not own a direct stake in the company and has stepped down from many of his management responsibilities. Some of the projects he previously championed, including video-generating app Sora, have also been scaled back or shelved.

Shareholders question

OpenAI's top executives and largest investors say they support Altman, crediting him with leading the company to success.

However, some shareholders have begun to privately question his suitability to lead OpenAI through the turbulence of a public offering, and have proposed Chairman and former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor as a potential replacement, according to people familiar with the matter.

"I'm fortunate to see every day that Sam is a unique person to lead this company as we move into this next chapter," Taylor said in a statement.

Altman said on a podcast in December: "Am I excited about being the CEO of a public company? The answer is zero. Am I excited about OpenAI being a public company? In some ways, yes, but in some ways I think it would be very troubling."

Opaque personal finances

Before becoming CEO of OpenAI, Altman ran the venture capital firm Y Combinator and used that role to build a personal portfolio of hundreds of startups that was large enough to rival large venture capital firms.According to the Wall Street Journal, some of these companies have since struck lucrative deals with OpenAI, bringing Ultraman wealth. He also used his stake in the startup as collateral to obtain a line of credit from JPMorgan Chase, which he used to invest in other companies.

From Musk to Mark Zuckerberg, many of the wealthiest tech moguls have their net worth tied to stakes in the companies they run, which are often disclosed in public filings. Altman's financial situation is relatively opaque, which makes it difficult to judge how his personal investments will affect the decisions he makes at OpenAI.

Public company boards often prohibit executives from holding large stakes in outside companies while offering them generous compensation packages that include equity tied to future stock performance. The purpose of this is to ensure that they are financially motivated to grow the company.

Due to the historical fact that OpenAI was originally founded as a non-profit organization, Altman never received a direct equity stake in the company.According to the latest data currently available, his salary in 2024 is only $66,000. He once said at a Senate hearing on AI regulation in 2023: "I do this job because I love it."

Altman's potential conflicts of interest were also one of the reasons why he was briefly dismissed as CEO in November 2023. At the time, the OpenAI board said he "had not always been candid" in his communications. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that some directors who participated in his ouster believed that because Altman did not disclose his investment in startups, they could not judge how Altman might benefit personally when advancing transactions on behalf of OpenAI.

After Altman returned as CEO, the newly formed board of directors stated that it had established an audit committee to review possible conflicts of interest among directors and senior executives (including Altman).The board also instituted a stricter policy on managing conflicts of interest, but the specifics were never disclosed.

Helion Hype

Helion claims that its nuclear fusion technology is close to producing cheap, abundant energy for the world. Altman has been a shareholder of the company since 2014.

Altman participated in a financing round announced by the company in January 2025 that valued Helion at $5.4 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. He was negotiating with SoftBank to invest $40 billion in OpenAI and invited SoftBank to participate in Helion's financing.

Ultraman is a shareholder of Helion

This invitation ultimately led to SoftBank’s investment in Helion last year, a deal that was personally handled by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. This surprised some employees within SoftBank because they were not involved in discussions about the deal, the person said.

Helion does not make its research public and strictly limits access to its technology, making it difficult for industry experts to assess its progress. The company initially said its seventh-generation machine, "Polaris," was on track to generate more electricity than it consumes by 2024. Helion fell short of that goal and released no further details. The company said the machine had reached a technical milestone, which boosted confidence in its technology.

Ultraman has previously avoided participating in OpenAI’s decision-making on Helion.He once said that apart from OpenAI, Helion is the project that takes up the most of his time. In 2021, he invested US$375 million in the nuclear fusion company, which was his largest single investment at the time.

As one of the largest investors in OpenAI, Microsoft also agreed that year to purchase power from Helion starting in 2028.

$500 million investment fell through

In Helion's latest round of financing, which is expected to reach $1 billion, Altman proposed an investment of about $500 million in OpenAI. The proposed deal would value Helion at about $35 billion, making the company worth more than six times its previous value, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some OpenAI employees familiar with the plan were uneasy with Altman's proposal, according to people familiar with the matter. Altman is asking the company he leads to support another startup that he can personally profit from, which has no direct benefit to OpenAI. Company employees evaluating the request expressed doubts about the feasibility of Helion's technology, these people said.

Some OpenAI employees avoided participating in a Slack channel created to discuss the potential investment, according to people familiar with internal discussions at OpenAI. They worry that what they say on the channel could end up being used as evidence in court if the deal faces legal scrutiny.

OpenAI rejected the investment, but the company nonetheless struck a deal that gave it the rights to purchase up to 50 gigawatts of power from the fusion startup through 2035, equivalent to the power of 25 Hoover Dams.People familiar with the matter said that Helion has recently used the contract as one of its selling points when negotiating financing with investors, and this will also increase the value of Ultraman's shares.

Since OpenAI did not participate in this round of financing, Helion has reduced its financing target.The company now aims to raise $250 million, valuing it at $15 billion. According to people familiar with the matter, Thrive Capital, another large investor in OpenAI and a loyal supporter of Ultraman, will lead this round of financing.

rocket project

Altman has tried to use OpenAI's resources to support companies that challenge Musk. Musk, his personal opponent, is suing OpenAI for abandoning its nonprofit mission, with the case set to go to trial this month.

OpenAI said in January that it was investing in Merge Labs.This is a brain-computer interface startup company that Altman helped found last year. It is also a competitor of Musk's Neuralink. OpenAI said the two companies will collaborate to develop AI. A spokesman for Altman said that Altman serves on the board of directors of Merge Labs but does not own shares in the company.

Last summer, Altman asked rocket manufacturer Stoke Space if it was interested in working with OpenAI to help the startup build data centers in space.Altman proposed that OpenAI acquire or become a controlling shareholder of the company, a deal that would put him in direct competition with Musk, according to a person familiar with the matter. Altman’s same-sex husband had previously invested in Stoke through the family office Hydrazine.

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After The Wall Street Journal inquired about the deal in December, people close to OpenAI said talks were no longer moving forward. Altman had just sounded a so-called "red alert" at OpenAI, asking employees to suspend other projects and use their time to improve ChatGPT.

In February, Altman downplayed the idea of ​​building data centers in space at an event in India, calling it "ridiculous." Altman's comments surprised some people familiar with the negotiations, given his involvement in the negotiations. Discussions between the two companies about a rocket launch agreement are continuing this year, and Ultraman remains interested, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some OpenAI board members were unaware of the negotiations with Stoke, and they privately expressed doubts about the feasibility of building data centers in space, people familiar with the matter said.

More serious challenges are actually around the corner. Fidji Simo, OpenAI's top product lead, told employees last month that Anthropic's success should be viewed as a "wake-up call" and urged them to invest more resources in building products targeted at professional workplace scenarios.

Vision failed

Many of Ultraman's product visions have fallen through.OpenAI shut down Sora, the video generation app Ultraman launched last fall, and delayed the "adult mode" that was originally intended to enable erotic conversations in ChatGPT.Simo instead turned her resources to building a new "super app," which she hopes will help OpenAI win more enterprise customers.

Altman originally envisioned Seamus taking on a key role in OpenAI's operations as a public company, including hosting quarterly earnings calls. But shortly before she joined the company last August, her neuroimmune disease relapsed, forcing her to work remotely from her home in Southern California.

Seamus is on medical leave starting this month, creating a leadership vacuum at a fragile moment for OpenAI. In a note to employees, she named four executives to take over while she was on leave.

Ultraman was not mentioned in this notice. OpenAI said it is currently focusing on research, financing and acquiring new computing power.