‘We don’t understand why the CEO title is so important’: Emails reveal OpenAI’s cofounders were wary of Sam Altman's political ambitions

As Financial Times reports, Musk's lawyer, Steven Molo, claimed Sam Altman had a special "fixation" with becoming OpenAI's CEO, insinuating this could have to do with his political ambitions (1).

To back up his claim, Molo brought up emails to Altman from OpenAI cofounders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman back in 2017. In these messages, Sutskever and Brockman said they didn't "understand why the CEO title is so important to you." They asked Altman point-blank, "Is [artificial general intelligence] truly your primary motivation? How does it connect to your political goals (2)?"

When asked about these "political goals," Altman admitted he was considering running in California's gubernatorial race, according to Business Insider (3).

But Altman spent most of his testimony deflecting blame, saying Elon Musk was the real control freak.

Formally, Elon Musk's lawsuit alleges OpenAI breached its founding agreement by shifting from a nonprofit mission to a for-profit model.

From Altman's perspective, Musk was OK with making OpenAI a for-profit business. The only issue, according to Altman, was that Musk had to hold the reins.

To gain this outsized influence, Altman said Musk tried a few strategies, including a proposed 90% equity deal or merging OpenAI with his EV company Tesla.

As Financial Times reported, Altman told the Oakland courtroom, "Elon said he would only work on companies that he totally controlled." Since Musk didn't get his way, Altman claims he's seeking his $150 billion in damages (4) purely out of "vengeance" (5).

What exactly are Altman's politics?

​Although Altman hasn't run for office, he's certainly getting more cushy with members of Congress.

Soon after ChatGPT's launch, Altman testified before the U.S. Senate, urging lawmakers to regulate advanced AI systems (6). Reports from the New York Times claim he met with at least 100 lawmakers during this time (7).

A more recent Politico (8) report shows that OpenAI is now working with multiple influential Democratic insiders to help maintain its competitive edge as it navigates its way to a successful IPO.

Altman also sounded very patriotic in an X post on July 4, 2025, trumpeting his American identity and "techno-capitalism." As Altman said, "We should encourage people to make tons of money and then also find ways to widely distribute wealth and share the compounding magic of capitalism" (9).

Regarding his political affiliation, Altman said he was a Democrat for most of his 20s, but he no longer identifies with that party. Instead, Altman says, "I am politically homeless" and that he'd "rather hear from candidates about how they are going to make everyone have the stuff billionaires have instead of how they are going to eliminate billionaires" (10).

One of Altman's biggest economic proposals on this theme has always been "universal basic income" (UBI). In fact, Altman reportedly put $14 million of his own net worth into researching UBI's viability, per Business Insider (11). He's also behind a cryptocurrency startup World (formerly Worldcoin) that gives crypto to people who agree to scan their eyes to prove their identity (12).

In typical political fashion, Altman appears to have flip-flopped on this defining initiative. Business Insider reported that Altman said he doesn't "believe in universal basic income as much as I once did." Instead, he's now exploring "collective ownership" ideas, either through AI compute or company equity, in his quest to spread prosperity (13).