We found Altman uncertain about what’s next, describing himself as both “very optimistic and prepared for things to go super wrong at any point.” As Edward and Billy Perrigo write, OpenAI’s impact may be measured not just in users but also in how the company and its rivals shape the future. (It took Instagram 2½ years.) TIME’s former editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal visited Altman and his colleagues in San Francisco in May. Their ChatGPT program has rocketed in popularity, hitting 100 million active users in two months. Perhaps most visible among them is OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman. Accomplishments in AI earned spots for more than a dozen companies, up from five a year ago. This year’s list, which again includes Nvidia, shows the power of this vision.
Recently, Huang’s company, Nvidia, which makes the hardware powering this revolution, was valued at over $1 trillion.
Not long before we launched the first TIME100 Companies list in 2021, Jensen Huang told us, “AI is a watershed moment for the world.” That moment has now arrived.