Sam Altman and His Partner Oliver Mulherin Are Planning for the Future

The Gist:

• Former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is not married, but he is in a relationship with Oliver Mulherin.
• The two first appeared together at a White House state dinner earlier this year.
• Sam was ousted as CEO of OpenAI in November 2023 under mysterious circumstances, and was quickly hired by Microsoft afterward.

Although the future of artificial intelligence is often considered to be a potential threat to humanity, figures like former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have often weighed in to suggest that the apocalypse may not be as close as some fear. Following the news in mid-November that Sam had been ousted as the OpenAI CEO, many learned more about him. People have some questions about his personal life.

Although Sam obviously spends much of his time thinking about AI, he has a life outside of work just like anyone else. Is Sam Altman married? Here's what we know.

Sam doesn't appear to be married, but he is in a relationship with Oliver Mulherin, an Australian programmer. The two first appeared in public together at a White House event in early 2023, which was a state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modhi. Oliver got his degree in programming from the University of Melbourne and has worked on a number of AI and AI-adjacent projects over the course of his career.

In an interview published in New York Magazine in September, Sam explained that he and Oliver live together in a house in the Russian Hills neighborhood of San Francisco during the week. On the weekends, they retreat to a remodeled house in Napa Valley. Sam also said that he's a vegetarian, but that Oliver "likes cows," and the two are thinking about starting a family together soon.

Prior to his relationship with Oliver, Sam was in a relationship with Nick Silvo, whom he met while attending Stanford University. The two were together for almost nine years beginning in college. They planned to get married, but wound up breaking up in 2012, even as the company that they launched together was achieving more success.

After his highly controversial ouster from OpenAI for reasons that remain unclear, news broke that Sam would be joining Microsoft. Many employees at OpenAI were calling for Sam's return as CEO, threatening that they would collectively quit if he was not restored to the job. That didn't happen, though, and a new CEO was named instead.

The exact fallout from all of this, and the reason that Sam was ousted, remain unclear for the time being. OpenAI, which is the company behind ChatGPT, has been one of the hottest tech firms in Silicon Valley over the last year. Now, though, the company's future seems highly uncertain, as it may not be long before they lose all of their employees.