In December of last year, a partnership announced by Sam Altman and Bob Iger sent shockwaves through both Silicon Valley and Hollywood. The agreement granted OpenAI access to license a host of Disney's iconic characters, including Mickey Mouse, Darth Vader, and Cinderella, for use in its video-generation application, Sora. This AI tool can produce highly realistic videos from simple text prompts.

This alliance was particularly striking given Disney's renowned strict protection of intellectual property and Hollywood's general view of AI as an existential threat. Negotiations spanned over a year. Under the terms, Disney gained the ability to use Sora-generated videos on its Disney+ streaming platform. Altman also successfully persuaded the entertainment giant to make a $10 billion equity investment in OpenAI, providing the AI leader with a heavyweight endorsement from Hollywood.

"Sam wanted the investment to be both a symbol of confidence and, essentially, a way to solidify the partnership," Iger stated, "giving Disney more skin in the game."

This episode underscores Altman's rapidly growing influence, which has expanded in tandem with OpenAI's scale. On the first day of the second Trump administration, Altman appeared at the White House alongside President Trump, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and SoftBank billionaire investor Masayoshi Son to announce "Project Stargate": a commitment for a massive $500 billion investment in U.S. AI infrastructure. This grand initiative aligned with the style of an extremely expansionist president and risk-tolerant investors like Son. However, it was Altman who pushed for an even larger scale.

"We discussed it, and he said, 'The more, the better,'" Son remarked. "The more, the better."

Altman noted that Trump has been cooperative on AI matters, even though the administration's nationalist policies do not fully align with his personal views or OpenAI's ethos.

"His job is to make sure America wins. I see our mission as serving all of humanity," Altman said. "There is some tension there."

Despite this, as OpenAI embarks on large-scale future planning, their expansionist tendencies create some synergy. Beyond ChatGPT, Sora, and secret hardware being developed with Jonathan Ive, the company is also building custom AI chips, developing a social media app to compete with X, and even considering humanoid factory robots. In January, OpenAI released a suite of software tools for healthcare organizations and introduced a freemium, ad-supported business model for ChatGPT. OpenAI's Chief Research Officer, Mark Chen, indicated the company aims to develop an AI research "intern" within the next year to help teams accelerate idea development.

"We are moving toward a system that can autonomously make innovations," Altman stated. "I don't think most people in the world have really grasped what that means."

Critics observing these moves suggest Altman is simply trying to make OpenAI too big to fail, a notion his allies dispute.

"I don't think there's any secret plan," said OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor. "People are just very excited about the impact AI will have on humanity."

Paul Graham believes this drive is simply Altman's nature.

"If he sees an opportunity that nobody else is seizing, he finds it hard to resist," Graham said, pointing out that his former protégé is particularly susceptible to undervalued prospects. "I'd bet he'd have a hard time not buying commercial real estate in San Francisco."

Altman holds stakes in over 400 companies, which might suggest a lack of focus. Several OpenAI employees expressed concern that the company is attempting too much in too short a time. They worry about maintaining a lead in the model race, especially following the perceived underperformance of GPT-5. The decision by Apple to choose Google's AI model to power the next-generation Siri was a significant blow to morale—a deal many at OpenAI had considered nearly secured, given OpenAI's existing support for Apple Intelligence.

"Yeah, that one definitely stung," one engineer admitted. "A lot of us thought it was a done deal."

Altman himself asserts that he is focused "110%" on OpenAI and its core mission of achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). The definition of AGI itself is vague, and its realization could be 3 years, 30 years, or even further away. He once declared victory outright: "We've basically built AGI, or are very close."

When questioned about this statement, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella offered a dose of reality. "I think we are quite far from AGI," he said with a laugh. "We have a good process for making progress. It's not for Sam or me to declare."

Even as one of OpenAI's most crucial partners, Nadella acknowledges a natural "friction" exists between the two companies in the AI space.

"There will be gray areas," he noted. "So the term 'frenemies,' I think, fits our relationship quite well."

Days later, Altman walked back his earlier comment. "That was a spiritual statement, not a literal one," he explained.

He conceded that achieving AGI will require "many medium-sized breakthroughs. I don't think we need one giant leap."

Altman understands that his motivations can seem inscrutable to some. Even his longtime mentor, Graham, said, "It's hard to know what's going on in his head." The OpenAI CEO's insistence on immediate, aggressive expansion often draws criticism. For instance, his high-profile pledge to invest $1.4 trillion over the next eight years, primarily in AI chips and data centers. In his view, the need for such capital and computing power to keep pace with AI's exponential usage growth is "obvious."

"Then the rest of the world says, 'Face financial reality'. And I'm not very good at holding both of those opposing perspectives at once," he said.

Altman has devised a rather simple succession plan for OpenAI: hand the company over to an AI model. If the goal is to create an AI advanced enough to run a company, he反问ed, why shouldn't it be his own?

"I would never stand in the way of that," he stated. "I should be the most willing person to do that."

And after that? He says he has no other professional ambitions beyond OpenAI, with one exception: in a post-AGI world, he might find passion in a new type of work that doesn't yet exist.

"Most of what I really wanted to accomplish is done," he said. "I feel like I'm working on extra credit now."