Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, revealed during the Internapalooza Conference that he was peer-pressured and tricked into applying for an investment banking internship at Goldman Sachs during his sophomore year. According to reports from the conference, Altman said he felt really cool after getting accepted but ultimately declined the offer and chose to pursue his startup Loopt instead. He later joined the first class of Y Combinator and eventually became its president before founding OpenAI, which recently completed a ₹58,000 crore ($7 billion) share sale and is reportedly planning a potential trillion-dollar IPO in the second half of 2026.
Speaking at the Internapalooza Conference, Altman argued that starting a company can be a better alternative to climbing the corporate ladder, particularly with the opportunities created by AI. As reported by the conference, Altman said people can now turn down coveted banking internships and pursue startups, noting that you don't need anyone to take you seriously to build an entire startup using AI tokens. He criticized traditional banking for involving people who put too much effort into trying to get taken seriously and argued that the hierarchical nature of banking leaves less room for young professionals to create, unlike startups.
Despite his previous rejection of banking, OpenAI is now actively recruiting Wall Street professionals. According to reports, the company has hired more than 100 former investment bankers from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley to train AI models for financial work. Notable hires include former Morgan Stanley managing director Alisha Lehr, who joined OpenAI last month. The company is reportedly planning to increase its workforce to 8,000 by the end of the year, potentially creating further opportunities for finance professionals.
OpenAI is increasingly expecting finance professionals to be AI-native, with CFO Sarah Friar stating in June that she probably would not hire a finance person who didn't know how to use a tool like Codex. As reported by the company, Friar compared this requirement to the importance of knowing Excel, saying she would never hire a finance person who didn't know how to use Excel. The finance sector is becoming a battleground for enterprise AI companies, with Claude already in production at JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citi, while Anthropic has launched roughly 10 pre-built AI agents for financial workflows.
Adding to his recent political engagement, Sam Altman plans to donate $1 million to President Trump's inaugural fund, making him the latest tech leader to show support for the incoming administration. According to Fox News Digital, Altman's personal commitment will not be made on behalf of OpenAI but represents his own political stance. "President Trump will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead," Altman stated. This follows similar donations from other tech giants, with Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos also pledging $1 million each to Trump's inaugural fund, though their contributions were made through their respective companies.
