OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Friday he now feels “politically homeless,” arguing that the Democratic Party no longer supports a “culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.”
“I’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,” Altman wrote in a post on X.
That remark appeared to be in response to recent comments from New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who said this week that he does not believe billionaires should exist.
Altman shared his views in a July 4 post, celebrating American values while also criticizing the political direction of the party he once aligned with. “I’m extremely proud to be an American,” he wrote, adding that the U.S. “is the greatest country ever on Earth.”
In the post, Altman outlined what he described as his political philosophy of “techno-capitalism.”
“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,” he wrote. “One doesn’t work without the other; you cannot raise the floor and not also raise the ceiling for very long.”
Altman, 40, said he’s held this view since his early twenties and felt it once reflected core Democratic ideals. But, he wrote, “they have completely moved somewhere else at this point.”
His comments come as some Democratic candidates adopt increasingly progressive stances on economic inequality. Mamdani, in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, said: “I don’t think we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality and ultimately what we need more of is equality across our city and across our state and across our country.”
CNBC has reached out to Mamdani’s campaign for comment on Altman’s remarks.
Altman’s post drew attention not just for its timing on Independence Day, but also for the broader political tone at a moment when AI leaders like himself are playing increasingly high-profile roles in business and policy.
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