• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
TechOpenAI

Sam Altman’s sister has taken her graphic claims he sexually abused her to court: ‘Utterly untrue,’ responds the CEO of OpenAI

Christiaan Hetzner
By
Christiaan Hetzner
Christiaan Hetzner
Senior Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
Christiaan Hetzner
By
Christiaan Hetzner
Christiaan Hetzner
Senior Reporter
Down Arrow Button Icon
January 8, 2025, 8:31 AM ET
Sam Altman Co-founder and CEO of OpenAI speaks during the Italian Tech Week 2024 at OGR Officine Grandi Riparazioni on September 25, 2024 in Turin, Italy
OpenAI's Sam Altman faces claims he sexually abused his younger sister over a nine-year period. The entire immediate family issued a joint statement published by Altman denying the claims.Stefano Guidi—Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.
  • Ann Altman is asking for $150,000 in damages, alleging her brother Sam repeatedly abused her over the course of roughly nine years. Her immediate family issued a statement denying the claims completely and alleging instead the 30-year-old is suffering from mental health problems.

Sam Altman, the billionaire CEO behind ChatGPT creator OpenAI, is facing a bombshell lawsuit over incendiary allegations he sexually abused his younger sister over the course of nearly a decade. 

Recommended Video

While the claims made by Ann Altman are not entirely new, this is the first time his youngest sibling has gone so far as to take legal action. She is demanding a jury award her a total of $150,000 subsequent to a trial in which she presumably would have to testify under oath in court. 

A statement on Tuesday that Sam Altman attributed jointly to himself, his two younger brothers Jack and Max, and their mother denied the allegations. Instead the remaining immediate family—Altman’s father has already passed away—blamed Ann’s allegations on a history of mental illness.

“All of these claims are utterly untrue,” they wrote. “It is especially gut-wrenching when she refuses conventional treatment and lashes out at family members who are genuinely trying to help.”

Graphic allegations put forth in detail

The lawsuit is only a few pages long, but it describes in graphic detail what Ann Altman claims was visited upon her repeatedly at the hand of her 9-years-elder brother beginning around the year 1997. 

According to her lawsuit, the rape, sodomy, and molestation continued up until 2006, by which point Sam Altman had reached the age of adulthood.

His sister is seeking $75,000 in damages each for two separate counts, one involving sexual assault and another involving the lesser charge of sexual battery. The case was filed in a U.S. federal court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the state where she grew up near St. Louis and where the events supposedly occurred.

“At all times relevant herein, Defendant, Sam Altman, groomed and manipulated Plaintiff, Ann Altman, into believing the aforementioned sexual acts were her idea, despite the fact she was under the age of five years old when the sexual abuse began and Defendant was nearly a teenager,” wrote Ann Altman’s lawyer, Ryan Mahoney, in the filling.

Ann Altman documented her progression from illness to prostitution

Far from disputing the family’s allegation of illness, Ann Altman has been very open about the mental, physical and financial difficulties she claims to have endured. 

Altman’s sister argues they stem heavily from the trauma she allegedly received as a child at the hand of her accused abuser—now one of the most influential men in Silicon Valley and a billionaire to boot.

These include a vivid account posted in March of last year to the platform Medium explaining how her abuse had manifested itself physically much later in life. 

“In college and after, I had projectile vomited multiple times during sex with men I loved and trusted,” she wrote. 

Nonetheless, she says a lack of money eventually compelled her to support herself first through an OnlyFans account, before graduating to hardcore pornography with film partners and ultimately prostitution at one point.

The Altman family disputed her financial troubles in its statement, however.  

“Annie receives monthly financial support, which we expect to continue for the rest of her life,” the joint statement read. “Despite this, Annie continues to demand more money from us.”

Ann Altman first went public with her claims in 2021, and has maintained her allegations throughout. In an X post addressed to her eldest brother, she wrote “you’re welcome for helping you figure out your sexuality,” a reference to his eventual coming out.

Sensitive juncture for OpenAI

The lawsuit comes at a sensitive juncture for OpenAI. Altman is attempting to navigate a restrictive corset of laws in order to change its hybrid corporate structure from a nonprofit with a capped-profit subsidiary to a more conventional for-profit “benefit corporation” similar to rivals like Anthropic and the recently formed xAI. 

Without continued access to investor funds, OpenAI could struggle to pay the exorbitant costs for training increasingly more advanced versions of its GPT large language model, an artificially intelligent neural network.

Cofounder Elon Musk, owner of xAI, is however suing OpenAI to contest its plans to shed its nonprofit status—despite evidence suggesting he fully supported the idea earlier. 

While Musk’s argument is believed thin due to the legal peculiarities governing nonprofits, one wrong move by OpenAI when changing its legal status and authorities could impose a massive tax bill that would spook investors and limit Altman’s ability to continue raising billions of dollars in loss-absorbing equity. 

Already a controversial figure in the AI scene, Altman has faced damaging allegations of duplicity in the past from former board members who sought to fire him in November 2023. The company has since suffered from repeated bouts of internal turmoil.

Fortune has reached out to OpenAI requesting a comment on the lawsuit.

About the Author
Christiaan Hetzner
By Christiaan HetznerSenior Reporter
Instagram iconLinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Christiaan Hetzner is a former writer for Fortune, where he covered Europe’s changing business landscape.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

A test of Anduril's Altius drone.
NewslettersTerm Sheet
Defense tech could be entering its awkward teenage years. Is the boom a bubble?
By Allie GarfinkleJuly 2, 2026
1 hour ago
em
Commentary250 Years of Innovation
America’s 250th birthday has Elon Musk and a record IPO. Its 15th had Alexander Hamilton — and a stock market bubble
By Owen LamontJuly 2, 2026
1 hour ago
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (left) and CTO Andrew "Boz" Bosworth in Menlo Park, California, on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025. (Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
NewslettersFortune Tech
Meta prepares to join the cloud infrastructure fray
By Andrew NuscaJuly 2, 2026
2 hours ago
Sam Altman seeks new world order for AI as OpenAI slowly loses ground to Google and Anthropic 
AIMarkets
Sam Altman seeks new world order for AI as OpenAI slowly loses ground to Google and Anthropic 
By Jim EdwardsJuly 2, 2026
3 hours ago
elon
CommentaryChina
China has 400 private space companies. The West is barely paying attention
By Rainer ZitelmannJuly 2, 2026
3 hours ago
hegseth
Startups & VentureVenture Capital
The defense tech boom has become a bubble—or it will be soon
By Allie GarfinkleJuly 2, 2026
5 hours ago

Most Popular

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
1 day ago
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
7 days ago
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
23 hours ago
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
Newsletters
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
By Diane BradyJuly 1, 2026
1 day ago
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
Success
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
By Preston ForeJune 27, 2026
5 days ago
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
Success
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
By Sydney LakeJune 29, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.