When a startup called Retro Biosciences eased out of stealth mode in mid-2022 [co-founder: Joe Betts-LaCroix], it announced it had secured $180 million to bankroll an audacious mission: to add 10 years to the average human life span. It had set up its headquarters in a raw warehouse space near San Francisco just the year before, bolting shipping containers to the concrete floor to quickly make lab space for the scientists who had been enticed to join the company.
…Now MIT Technology Review can reveal that the entire sum was put up by Sam Altman, the 37-year-old startup guru and investor who is CEO of OpenAI…Until now, though, Altman’s involvement in the company has been kept confidential. That was a decision made by Betts-LaCroix, who wanted to let Retro carve its own path. Altman agreed, since he tries “to be super careful about not overshadowing the CEOs I work with.” That was also because Altman’s name could prove a distraction, say people familiar with the company’s thinking. Sure, he had a big name, but it was for the wrong reasons. Although Altman’s stature in the startup world is unmatched, his reputation is almost nonexistent in biology labs and pharmaceutical circles, settings in which a person’s scientific record is paramount.
…He says he’s emptied his bank account to fund two other very different but equally ambitious goals: limitless energy and extended life span.
One of those bets is on the fusion power startup Helion Energy, into which he’s poured more than $375 million, he told CNBC in 2021. The other is Retro, to which Altman cut checks totaling $180 million the same year. “It’s a lot. I basically just took all my liquid net worth and put it into these two companies”, Altman says…With fusion power, the trend Altman saw was toward bigger and stronger magnets. Magnets are needed to hold in place the 100-million-degree vortex of hot plasma at the core of a reactor. Altman says he initially invested around $13.36$102014 million in Helion but then ramped up his bet as he “became super confident it is going to work.” [Helion would sign a deal with Microsoft, the largest OpenAI investor, in 2023, which Altman may have helped negotiate.]
Altman’s investment in Retro hasn’t been previously reported. It is among the largest ever by an individual into a startup pursuing human longevity.
…Altman, with 1.5 million Twitter followers, is consolidating a reputation as a heavy hitter whose creations seem certain to alter society in profound ways.
Altman does not appear on the Forbes billionaires list, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t extremely wealthy. His wide-ranging investments have included early stakes in companies like Stripe and Airbnb [cf. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s involvement in OA firing]. “I have been an early-stage tech investor in the greatest bull market in history”, he says.
…In 2018, Y Combinator launched a special course for biotech companies, inviting those with “radical anti-aging schemes” to apply, but before long, Altman moved away from Y Combinator to focus on his growing role at OpenAI.