On X, Paul Graham says claims about YC firing Sam Altman are “not true”, and Altman left because he wanted to work full-time on OpenAI as its CEO
As OpenAI Chief Faces Criticism From Ex-Board Member X: Paul Graham / @paulg : I got tired of hearing that YC fired Sam, so here's what actually happened: [image] Jacques / @jacquesthibs : @paulg Hey Paul, thanks for the clarification! I have a further question: why was there a YC blog post claiming that Sam would transition into a chairman role and then quickly got scrubbed within a day or two? [image] Sara Bloomberg / @bloomreports : Whether Sam Altman was fired from YC or not, he has never been YC's chair but claimed to be in SEC filings for his AltC SPAC which merged w/Oklo. AltC scrubbed references to Sam being YC chair from its website in the weeks since I first reported this. https://www.bizjournals.com/ ... Paul Graham / @paulg : @JacquesThibs @1010Towncrier Apparently YC's later-stage fund invested $10m in the for-profit subsidiary. This was not a very big investment for those funds. And obviously it wasn't influencing me, since I found out about it 5 minutes ago. @1010towncrier : @paulg Does YC currently own OpenAI shares? That would provide more context for releases like this. Paul Graham / @paulg : @1010Towncrier Not that I know of. Prasanna S / @myprasanna : The fascinating part here is @sama chose OpenAI. He could have forever appeared a legend being a YC CEO. But OpenAI was failing - @elonmusk withdrew funding. The baby needed all he got. He did not let the baby die. Real legends are forged by sacrifice. Rohit / @krishnanrohit : This should put a lot more rumours to rest Ed Zitron / @edzitron : We didn't fire Sam we just gave him an ultimatum that if he didn't do something we'd give someone else his job Eliezer Yudkowsky / @esyudkowsky : I'm confused about the Altman/YC situation in light of this statement, but let's have our side be the good guys and not misrepresent any part of whatever is going on.
@paulg Hey Paul, thanks for the clarification! I have a further question: why was there a YC blog post claiming that Sam would transition into a chairman role and then quickly got scrubbed within a day or two? [image]
Whether Sam Altman was fired from YC or not, he has never been YC's chair but claimed to be in SEC filings for his AltC SPAC which merged w/Oklo. AltC scrubbed references to Sam being YC chair from its website in the weeks since I first reported this. https://www.bizjournals.com/…
@JacquesThibs @1010Towncrier Apparently YC's later-stage fund invested $10m in the for-profit subsidiary. This was not a very big investment for those funds. And obviously it wasn't influencing me, since I found out about it 5 minutes ago.
The fascinating part here is @sama chose OpenAI. He could have forever appeared a legend being a YC CEO. But OpenAI was failing - @elonmusk withdrew funding. The baby needed all he got. He did not let the baby die. Real legends are forged by sacrifice.
I'm confused about the Altman/YC situation in light of this statement, but let's have our side be the good guys and not misrepresent any part of whatever is going on.