Mark Chen, Sam Altman, and Greg Brockman: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2026

It’s been a difficult stretch for the company that ushered in the AI boom. It dealt with leadership departures, rogue agents, a public backlash against the industry, and stiff competition from rival Anthropic, whose success in the coding and enterprise markets lifted its value above OpenAI's as the two companies prepare for expected IPOs. But OpenAI’s leaders are optimistic that they have fixed the product and operational missteps that enabled Anthropic to seize the lead in the AI race. Their vision for the company’s future is audacious: state-of-the-art models; superintelligent personal assistants; new chips, data centers, and consumer devices; and a renewed emphasis on safety and alignment that executives hope will set new industry standards and spur broader cooperation. While Altman remains the CEO and public face, OpenAI co-founder Brockman is now running large parts of the company, from revenue to product marketing. And Chen, the chief research officer, oversees teams that, by his estimate, have brought OpenAI “80% of the way” to achieving artificial general intelligence—the company’s founding goal, but no longer its lodestar. As Brockman puts it: “We are looking at transforming the entire economy.”