TOP 10 – AI LEADERS

COMPANY: OPENAI REVENUE: US $ 12BN EMPLOYEES: 2,659 CEO: SAM ALTMAN FOUNDED: 2015

As the leader of OpenAI, Sam is one of AI’ s pioneers, transforming AI from research curiosity to mainstream technology through ChatGPT’ s public release. His transition from Y Combinator president to AI evangelist positioned him as the public face of the artificial general intelligence( AGI) movement, while his fundraising success – including a USUS $ 40bn Series F round in March 2025 – demonstrates the capital requirements for frontier AI development.

His influence operates through both technical advancement and public narrative, creating market demand for AI applications while securing the funding needed to build them. Sam’ s vision of AI creating new career paths, including

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speculation about graduates working in space, shows the evolving scope he envisions for the technology.

The symbiotic relationship between his market-making vision and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’ s hardware infrastructure defines the current AI ecosystem – where software ambitions drive hardware demand in an unprecedented cycle of technological and financial innovation.

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50 November 2025