Sam Altman, every mention

201 scenes (said by Alex Kantrowitz) · ← back to Sam Altman

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every year anyone Alex Kantrowitz 611Ranjan Roy 89M.G. Siegler 33Ed Zitron 19Parmy Olson 17Stephen Morris 12David Cahn 11Aaron Levie 7Kara Swisher 6Dick Costolo 6

Verbatim, from the transcripts: the passages where Sam Altman comes up

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Big Tech’s Insane Hidden AI Spending, Ranking Anthropic vs. OpenAI, AI For Travel Debate Aug 24, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 45:53 Alex Kantrowitz Her departure followed a string of other exits, including former chief operating officer, Brad Lightcap, and Fiji Simo, once seen as the heir apparent to chief executive, Sam Altman.

Leopold Blows Up, OpenAI Drastically Cuts Prices, Microsoft’s Best Day Aug 3, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 36:40 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, before we go to break, I want to talk to you a little bit about what Sam Altman has been up to this week.

OpenAI Finally Ships Its Superapp, Meta’s AI Price War, ChatGPT Cheating At Brown Jul 13, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 17:47 Alex Kantrowitz Sam Altman talking about, ah, GBT 5.6 this week said it was 54% more token efficient, ah, than others, right, than its previous model.

Who Wins The AI Superapp Battle?, Apple’s Consumer AI Victory, World Cup Automation Mistake Jul 6, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 26:21 Alex Kantrowitz Yeah, just to put a bow on this, it's going to be a very, and I spoke with Sam Altman about this at the end of the year, and for whatever reason, it stuck with me.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman: Our Plan To Merge Chat And Agents Jul 1, 2026 · 1 mention

Mythos is Back, OpenAI Releases GPT 5.6, Apple’s Price Increases Jun 29, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 23:56 Alex Kantrowitz The maker of Chachipiti hired bankers and lawyers with an eye towards a public offering as soon as the third or fourth quarter of this year, but because that's not going to hit the one trillion dollar valuation that Sam Altman has been…

Big Technology AI Summit (full): Greg Brockman, Mike Krieger, Aaron Levie & Friends of The Podcast Jun 26, 2026 · 3 mentions

Are AI Glasses Over? + Big Technology AI Summit Audience Questions Jun 22, 2026 · 1 mention

SpaceX’s IPO Triumph, Anthropic’s Fable Fumble, OpenAI’s Price War Jun 15, 2026 · 4 mentions

  • ▶ 4:34 Alex Kantrowitz So the question to you Ranjan becomes is, is Elon taking money out of Sam and Dario's pockets? 3 times in the scene
  • ▶ 40:37 Alex Kantrowitz OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said at a recent event that costs have become a huge issue.

Predicting the SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic IPOs — With Dick Costolo May 27, 2026 · 7 mentions

How AI Changes Society, And Society Changes AI — With Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe May 22, 2026 · 3 mentions

Satya Nadella’s OpenAI Concerns, Google’s Next AI Model, The AI Monet Prank May 18, 2026 · 8 mentions

  • ▶ 0:26 Alex Kantrowitz We're going to go deep into the documents coming out of the Musk versus Altman
  • ▶ 1:04 Alex Kantrowitz It sure is, because, you know, one of the, we'll see what happens with this case with Musk and Altman and whether the verdict is consequential or not, but certainly the documents coming out of the case are consequential, and give us a… 2 times in the scene
  • ▶ 13:48 Alex Kantrowitz This brings me back to the end of the year last year when I was sitting with Sam Altman and speaking with him about Google and Google's, uh, you know, driving open AI into a code red and what his strategy was to win against Google. 3 times in the scene
  • ▶ 23:23 Alex Kantrowitz Where Kevin Scott is, uh, where all these folks, Kevin Scott, Satya, Sam, uh, are suggesting who should be on the OpenAI board in the future, and then Kevin Scott chimes in with this one.
  • ▶ 53:13 Alex Kantrowitz In the Satya and the Musk Altman trial.

PwC’s Dallas Dolen: AI Hardware’s Advantage, TokenMaxxing, Automation’s Impact May 15, 2026 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 27:04 Alex Kantrowitz I heard, I think it was Sam Altman say that, like, humans have, people have started to talk to him about this. 2 times in the scene

The Allure of AI Love + Does Anyone Want AI Wearables? — With Joanna Stern May 13, 2026 · 1 mention

The Unlikely Anthropic & SpaceX Marriage, OpenAI Trial Revelations, AI Layoffs Or Cope? May 11, 2026 · 8 mentions

  • ▶ 1:01 Alex Kantrowitz I was tempted, very tempted, to begin today's show with a dramatic reading of the text messages between Sam Altman and former OpenAI CTO and former OpenAI interim CEO Miramirati that came out in court this week.
  • ▶ 36:30 Alex Kantrowitz We'll see you on the other side with a dramatic reading, reading of Sam Altman and Mira Murati's texts.
  • ▶ 36:43 Alex Kantrowitz Ranjan, when these text messages between Sam Altman and Mira Mirati, the former CTO of OpenAI came out, these are the text messages that they were sending to each other during what's called the blip or when Sam Altman was, um, was fired… 6 times in the scene

Did Apple Get AI Spending Right?, Microsoft & OpenAI’s New Reality, Where’s Stargate? May 5, 2026 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 1:01 Alex Kantrowitz We might even cover the Musk Altman case because we have some, uh, breaking news on that front, and it's great to welcome you back to the show, MG.
  • ▶ 57:26 Alex Kantrowitz We, I, we were talking about potentially covering the Musk Altman trial, but I think when you're on in June, we'll actually maybe have a verdict to discuss.

OpenAI’s User Growth Miss, Musk vs. Altman In Court, Prediction Market Ban May 4, 2026 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 0:05 Alex Kantrowitz Elon Musk and Sam Altman meet in court, and Anthropix valuation is approaching one trillion dollars. 2 times in the scene
  • ▶ 1:49 Alex Kantrowitz Board directors have also more closely examined the company's data center deals in recent months and questioned, uh, chief executive Sam Altman's efforts to secure even more computing power despite the business slowdown.

Mark Cuban: AI Hype vs. Reality, OpenAI's Wasting $1 Trillion, Lebron vs. Jordan Apr 29, 2026 · 5 mentions

  • ▶ 33:10 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, do you see some of yourself in the Sam Altman's and Dario ammo days in the world? 5 times in the scene

Apple After Tim Cook, OpenAI’s New Mojo, Meta’s Internal Tracking Escapade Apr 27, 2026 · 12 mentions

  • ▶ 18:25 Alex Kantrowitz First, there was a night of funny drunk tweets, which, uh, I think Sam tweeted an Anthropic growth employee. 12 times in the scene

OpenAI President Greg Brockman on GPT-5.5 “Spud,” AI Model Moats, and Cybersecurity Risks Apr 23, 2026 · 1 mention

Jensen On The Ropes, Sam Altman’s Conflicts, Allbirds’ GPU Pivot Apr 20, 2026 · 14 mentions

  • ▶ 0:06 Alex Kantrowitz Sam Altman's conflicts are getting at least some open AI investors a bit nervous, and Allbirds is a GPU company now. 3 times in the scene
  • ▶ 42:37 Alex Kantrowitz All right, let's take a break and come back and talk a little bit about Sam Altman.
  • ▶ 42:46 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, today's flown by, uh, let's talk about this story in the wall street journal about Sam Altman side hustles, which is interesting because, uh, the headline was Sam Altman side hustles blur the line between open AI's interests and his… 10 times in the scene

Anthropic’s Mythos Dilemma, Violence Against AI, Tokenmaxxing at Meta Apr 13, 2026 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 36:47 Alex Kantrowitz Suspect arrested for allegedly throwing Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman's home. 3 times in the scene

More OpenAI C-Suite Drama, Is Siri Seriously Broken?, Meta’s Elusive Next Hit Apr 10, 2026 · 18 mentions

  • ▶ 1:18 Alex Kantrowitz There's breaking news that we have coming, uh, you know, basically within our recording window here that, um, there is potentially some discontent between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and CFO Sarah Fryer. 9 times in the scene
  • ▶ 10:43 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, and this is again, the reporting from the information in recent months, Altman left Friar out of a conversation about service spending with leaders at one of OpenAI's top investors. 7 times in the scene
  • ▶ 18:45 Alex Kantrowitz With a range of experience at dynamic companies, it's hard to imagine that Altman could instill the discipline needed here. 2 times in the scene

OpenAI's TBPN Mistake, SpaceX’s $2 Trillion IPO?, Iran Disables Amazon Infrastructure Apr 6, 2026 · 4 mentions

  • ▶ 1:50 Alex Kantrowitz Chief executives who've appeared as guests include meta platforms, Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft Satya Nadella, and OpenAI's Sam Altman. 3 times in the scene
  • ▶ 25:01 Alex Kantrowitz I mean, this was the argument that Sam Altman made to me at the end of the year last year, where I asked him about the competition with Google and he goes, basically, there are going to be two types of companies.

OpenAI President Greg Brockman: AI Self-Improvement, The Superapp Bet, Path To AGI, Scaling Compute Apr 1, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 23:06 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, the information said, uh, that you finished, uh, pre-training Spud and Sam Albin, the CEO at OpenAI has told the staff that, uh, they should expect to have a very strong model in a few weeks.

OpenAI’s Superapp Is Coming, Jensen on Jobs, Bezos’s $100 Billion Automation Fund Mar 23, 2026 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 1:52 Alex Kantrowitz BG Simo, OpenAI's CEO of Applications, previewed the changes to employees in an all-hands meeting, telling them that the top leaders, including CEO Sam Altman and Chief Research Officer Mark Chen, were actively looking at which areas to… 2 times in the scene
  • ▶ 22:30 Alex Kantrowitz Where's Sam?

Are We Screwed If AI Works? — With Andrew Ross Sorkin Mar 18, 2026 · 1 mention

AI Backlash Intensifies, Nvidia GTC Preview, Meta’s Embarrassing Delay Mar 16, 2026 · 13 mentions

  • ▶ 1:30 Alex Kantrowitz I don't know if you saw, uh, Sam Altman speaking at an investor conference, and there was a quote that went around Twitter where he said, 6 times in the scene
  • ▶ 4:50 Alex Kantrowitz and maybe it's not Sam's communication that's doing this. 6 times in the scene
  • ▶ 9:02 Alex Kantrowitz Is it, I know who Sam Altman is, and he's not a great communicator, or is it, this shit is getting scary good, and I'm worried I'm going to have a job in a couple of years.

AI’s Unpopularity + Competing With ChatGPT — With Olivia Moore Mar 12, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 51:15 Alex Kantrowitz Yeah, and I was with Sam Altman at the end of the year last year, he talked about how he believes that

AI Revenue Explodes, Dario’s Memo, McDonalds’ CEO’s Baby Burger Bite Mar 9, 2026 · 4 mentions

  • ▶ 16:11 Alex Kantrowitz Is it because he doesn't trust Sam Altman, or is it because, you know, he doesn't believe in the technology?
  • ▶ 42:09 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, so Dario says, um, about Sam, he says, behind the scenes, Sam has been working with the department of war to sign a contract with them to replace us as the instant, the instant we are designated as a supply chain risk, but he has to do… 3 times in the scene

Dario’s Choice and Anthropic’s Future, Apple’s AI Devices, Netflix Loses WBD Mar 4, 2026 · 10 mentions

  • ▶ 30:51 Alex Kantrowitz Um, maybe the inter intermediary that comes in is Sam Altman, or maybe not. 10 times in the scene

OpenAI Closes in on $100 Billion, OpenClaw Acquired, AI’s Productivity Question — With Aaron Levie Feb 23, 2026 · 7 mentions

  • ▶ 22:34 Alex Kantrowitz We got one from, uh, Sam Altman. 6 times in the scene
  • ▶ 32:25 Alex Kantrowitz The creator of the viral AI agent OpenClaw is joining OpenAI and the service will live in a foundation as an open source project that OpenAI will continue to support, Sam Altman said.

How Google DeepMind Operates & Experiments — With Lila Ibrahim and James Manyika Feb 18, 2026 · 1 mention

Who’s Winning The AI Race? + Software’s Future — With Sridhar Ramaswamy Feb 12, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 4:34 Alex Kantrowitz In fact, Sam Altman, I think he was in India and he was like, you could try to build a model like ours, but it won't work.

Software In Shambles, OpenAI vs. Anthropic Super Brawl, Amazon’s Struggles Feb 9, 2026 · 9 mentions

The Moltbook Uprising, NVIDIA’s OpenAI Pullback, Apple’s Conundrum Feb 3, 2026 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 38:23 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, obviously Sam Altman made that comment to me when I spoke with him late last year, uh, that he, he would hate being a public company CEO, something along those lines. 2 times in the scene

The Anthropic Rocketship, AI’s Spending Limits, SpaceX IPO Feb 2, 2026 · 5 mentions

  • ▶ 7:16 Alex Kantrowitz And now Anthropix seems like it's attracted some of the biggest backers of open AI, which is interesting because I think you'll remember that the rumor was in the latest funding round, Sam Altman was saying, if you invest in any of our… 3 times in the scene
  • ▶ 12:33 Alex Kantrowitz Right, and so last week we talked a little bit about how OpenAI was trying to raise fifty billion, and the headline there was that Sam Altman was in Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states trying to raise that round, and I was basically… 2 times in the scene

Is AI Killing Software? — With Bret Taylor, OpenAI's board chair and CEO of Sierra Jan 28, 2026 · 8 mentions

OpenAI’s $50 Billion Fundraise, AI Advertising Game Theory, Apple’s AI Wearable Pin Jan 26, 2026 · 12 mentions

  • ▶ 2:56 Alex Kantrowitz Maybe Sam Altman is not even in the Qatar House, but he's going to make a stop there because he's definitely on a fundraising kick right now. 3 times in the scene
  • ▶ 8:01 Alex Kantrowitz Bloomberg says, OpenAI's Altman meets Middle East investors, Mid-East investors, for a fifty billion dollar, or a fifty billion dollar round. 4 times in the scene
  • ▶ 26:44 Alex Kantrowitz Going back to the original conversation, because we started this way, going back to the original conversation we were having with, uh, about Sam and others claiming AGI is around the corner. 5 times in the scene

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis: AI's Next Breakthroughs, AGI Timeline, Google's AI Glasses Bet Jan 23, 2026 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 6:26 Alex Kantrowitz We've brought up AGI a couple times, um, so let me, let me put this to you, because I was speaking with Sam Altman towards the end of the year, and I asked him, I was like, you know, you seem to be saying two things. 2 times in the scene

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: Future Of AI Devices, AI Fashion, Blending Reality and Computing Jan 20, 2026 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 5:28 Alex Kantrowitz I was speaking with Sam Altman right before the end of the year, and now OpenAI is going to build a family of devices, but the rumor had been that it's going to be a smartphone-sized device, no screen, and it just listens to you, and then…

Who Wins if AI Models Commoditize? — With Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch Jan 16, 2026 · 2 mentions

  • ▶ 6:19 Alex Kantrowitz Um, you know, I had this story, this story, uh, basically inside a lunch with Sam Altman and a bunch of news leaders in New York city. 2 times in the scene

AI’s Steve Jobs?, Big Tech AI Chaos, 2026 Crystal Ball Jan 13, 2026 · 10 mentions

  • ▶ 16:13 Alex Kantrowitz Um, so, you know, it was interesting to me. 9 times in the scene
  • ▶ 38:25 Alex Kantrowitz It's, uh, you know, one of the things that's just sort of stuck out to me when I was, you know, speaking with Sam was he was like, you can't just bolt AI on the existing products.

AI & Tech 2026 Outlook: ChatGPT 1 Billion, AI Shopping, Apple's Big Year, AI Love Boom Dec 29, 2025 · 1 mention

2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions: Meta, NVIDIA, Tesla, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft Dec 24, 2025 · 3 mentions

  • ▶ 2:18 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, Sam Altman gets fired, reinstated, uh,
  • ▶ 9:44 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, the moment where Facebook and, I mean, we've already seen some of it with the recruiting, but Facebook and OpenAI's battle just explodes out into the open, and maybe Zuck and Sam are at odds with each other, and, um, Meta might even…
  • ▶ 14:00 Alex Kantrowitz And it was interesting how, uh, when Google released Gemini three, before the code red happened, the underappreciated comment within that company was, uh, Sam saying there are going to be some, you know, I guess like, what did he say?

OpenAI’s Potential, Google’s Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence Dec 22, 2025 · 46 mentions

  • ▶ 0:02 Alex Kantrowitz We'll go deep after my conversation with Sam Altman. 6 times in the scene
  • ▶ 3:01 Alex Kantrowitz Um, to me, one of the most ambitious things that Sam mentioned was, uh, memory and how OpenAI plans to build real memory, uh, meaning that the bots will, will remember you and have this, um, real understanding of your life. 6 times in the scene
  • ▶ 11:07 Alex Kantrowitz Also, when Sam was saying the things that they will not do, he said, we're not going to have our AI try to convince people that they should be in an exclusive romantic relationship with them. 5 times in the scene
  • ▶ 14:31 Alex Kantrowitz And here's how he, um, here's how Sam phrased it using, uh, using messaging apps as an example. 4 times in the scene
  • ▶ 18:43 Alex Kantrowitz And this was also an interesting thing that I, I wanted to speak with Sam about because we're at this point where it seems like there's model parity in some ways, or at least the models are close enough that a lot of people can't tell the… 6 times in the scene
  • ▶ 21:02 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, one interesting point on enterprise, Sam says the same way that personalization to a user is very important, uh, to consumers. 2 times in the scene
  • ▶ 24:02 Alex Kantrowitz Um, so this is, this is what Altman said about the, uh, the growth curve of revenue. 10 times in the scene
  • ▶ 30:29 Alex Kantrowitz And, and he basically said, like, we, we, I'm just gonna paraphrase Sam's response. 6 times in the scene
  • ▶ 40:54 Alex Kantrowitz And, um, and definitely encourage you to check out if you haven't the, uh, Sam Altman interview that was just published yesterday.

OpenAI’s 2026 Priority, Disney’s AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble Dec 17, 2025 · 12 mentions

  • ▶ 0:29 Alex Kantrowitz We are going to go inside a meeting with open AI, Sam Altman and top editors and media CEOs in New York to tell you what open AI is planning for.
  • ▶ 1:58 Alex Kantrowitz On Monday around noontime, and there at Rosemary's Midtown, a fine establishment near Grand Central Station in New York City, Sam Altman had lunch with editors and CEOs from places like The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. 9 times in the scene
  • ▶ 22:08 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, Altman had previously indicated users, uh, over 18 would be allowed to have erotic conversations with ChatGPT.
  • ▶ 35:36 Alex Kantrowitz I have to tell you, my, I'm, I am taking the, uh, the Sam Altman approach to Bob Iger and, and not the Elon Musk.

AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers Dec 8, 2025 · 9 mentions

  • ▶ 19:19 Alex Kantrowitz Uh, recently, as last month, Sam Altman and Johnny Ive, who've 4 times in the scene
  • ▶ 28:57 Alex Kantrowitz Speaking of these lofty introduction videos reminds me of the salmon, Johnny Ive.
  • ▶ 37:23 Alex Kantrowitz OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Monday told employees he was declaring a code red to marshal more resources to improve ChatGPT as threats rise from Google and other artificial intelligence competitors. 4 times in the scene

Zendesk's Adrian McDermott: AI's Customer Service Potential, Adoption Cycle, Scale vs. Orchestration Dec 5, 2025 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 32:36 Alex Kantrowitz Um, and so I think something that Sam Altman has talked about as one of his favorite releases, but then, uh, on an enterprise side, I think it's also quite valuable.

Tim Cook’s Final Year?, Big Tech Horse Race, Anthropic’s Profitability Push Dec 1, 2025 · 1 mention

Groq and Cohere CFOs: Can Artificial Intelligence Be Profitable? Nov 28, 2025 · 2 mentions

Communal Living, Sex, And Silicon Valley's Groupthink Problem — With Ellen Huet Nov 26, 2025 · 1 mention

Google Pushes OpenAI, Bezos Returns, AI’s No. 1 Hit Nov 24, 2025 · 11 mentions

  • ▶ 0:27 Alex Kantrowitz Because we are going to cover how Google has come and effectively equaled OpenAI's technology, causing Sam Altman to write a memo saying the vibes might be bad for a while.
  • ▶ 2:25 Alex Kantrowitz It's currently at the top of the LM arena leaderboards, and even Sam Altman came out and said, Hey, good model. 8 times in the scene
  • ▶ 11:44 Alex Kantrowitz OpenAI does leap back forward in some, I mean, Sam didn't say like we're behind on everything, but there are some areas that he says that Google has surpassed us in. 2 times in the scene

How Generative AI Could Change Shopping Forever — With Rubail Birwadker Nov 20, 2025 · 1 mention

  • ▶ 28:59 Alex Kantrowitz I mean, even Sam Altman talks about how some of the investment might be a little too frothy.

Can We Trust Silicon Valley With Superintelligence? — With Nick Clegg Nov 19, 2025 · 6 mentions

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