OpenAI's Sam Altman revealed as Reddit’s third-largest shareholder

Tech platform Reddit is gearing up for its IPO, filing its form S-1 with the US's Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

The form includes new details on its ownership, which includes a sizable stake controlled by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who controls 8.7 percent of the company’s stock, including 4.5 percent of its Class A shares, and 9.3 percent of its Class B shares, states The Hollywood Reporter.

Altman's stake in Reddit makes him the third-largest shareholder in Reddit, behind only the Newhouse family’s Advance, which owns just over 30 percent of the company, and China’s Tencent, which owns 11 percent of the company.

THR reports that both the Newhouse family and Tencent were previously known as major investors in Reddit. Altman was known to be an investor, but the size of his stake was unclear.

This week, Reddit signed a $60 million deal with Alphabet-owned Google that allows the search engine giant's artificial intelligence models to train on Reddit content.

Altman's OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is backed by Alphabet's rival Microsoft, which owns search engine Bing.

Reddit shared in a statement, "By making Reddit content and communities easier to find, we’re able to uphold our belief in the open internet while better serving current users and reaching new audiences. All of this builds on our existing partnership with Google Cloud to integrate new AI-powered capabilities to improve Reddit and help achieve our mission of bringing community, belonging, and empowerment to everyone in the world."

Reddit reported total revenue of $804 million in 2023, of which the vast majority ($788.8 million) was advertising-based (it also reported a net loss of $90.8 million last year).

Read More: Reddit signs $60 million deal allowing Google to train AI models on its content