OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visits “Making Money With Charles Payne” at Fox Business Network Studios in New York on Dec. 4, 2024.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s sister, Ann Altman, filed a lawsuit on Monday, alleging that her brother sexually abused her regularly between the years of 1997 and 2006.
The lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, alleges that the abuse took place at the family’s home in Clayton, Missouri, and began when Ann, who goes by Annie, was three and Sam was 12. The filing claims that the abusive activities took place “several times per week,” beginning with oral sex and later involving penetration.
The lawsuit claims that “as a direct and proximate result of the foregoing acts of sexual assault,” the plaintiff has experienced “severe emotional distress, mental anguish, and depression, which is expected to continue into the future.”
The younger Altman has publicly made similar sexual assault allegations against her brother in the past on platforms like X, but this is the first time she’s taken him to court. She’s being represented by Ryan Mahoney, whose Illinois-based firm specializes in matters including sexual assault and harassment.
The lawsuit requests a jury trial and damages in excess of $75,000.
In a joint statement on X with his mother, Connie, and his brothers Jack and Max, Sam Altman denied the allegations.
“Annie has made deeply hurtful and entirely untrue claims about our family, and especially Sam,” the statement said. “We’ve chosen not to respond publicly, out of respect for her privacy and our own. However, she has now taken legal action against Sam, and we feel we have no choice but to address this.”
Their response says “all of these claims are utterly untrue,” adding that “this situation causes immense pain to our entire family.” They said that Ann Altman faces “mental health challenges” and “refuses conventional treatment and lashes out at family members who are genuinely trying to help.”
Sam Altman has gained international prominence since OpenAI’s debut of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT in November 2022. Backed by Microsoft, the company was most recently valued at $157 billion, with funding coming from Thrive Capital, chipmaker Nvidia, SoftBank and others.
Altman was briefly ousted from the CEO role by OpenAI’s board in November 2023, but was quickly reinstated due to pressure from investors and employees.
This isn’t the only lawsuit the tech exec faces.
In March, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sued OpenAI and co-founders Altman and Greg Brockman, alleging breach of contract and fiduciary duty. Musk, who now runs a competing AI startup, xAI, was a co-founder of OpenAI when it began as a nonprofit in 2015. Musk left the board in 2018 and has publicly criticized OpenAI for allegedly abandoning its original mission.
Musk is suing to keep OpenAI from turning into a for-profit company. In June, Musk withdrew the original complaint filed in a San Francisco state court and later refiled in federal court.
Last month, OpenAI clapped back against Musk, claiming in a blog post that in 2017 Musk “not only wanted, but actually created, a for-profit” to serve as the company’s proposed new structure.
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Klarna, a provider of buy now, pay later loans filed its IPO prospectus on Friday, and plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol KLAR.
Klarna, headquartered in Sweden, hasn’t yet disclosed the number of shares to be offered or the expected price range.
The decision to go public in the U.S. deals a significant blow to European stock exchanges, which have struggled to retain homegrown tech firms. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski had hinted for years that a U.S. listing was more likely, citing better visibility and regulatory advantages.
Klarna is continuing to rebuild after a dramatic downturn. Once a pandemic-era darling valued at $46 billion in a SoftBank-led funding round, Klarna saw its valuation slashed by 85% in 2022, plummeting to $6.7 billion in its most recent primary fundraising. However, analysts now estimate the company’s valuation in the $15 billion range, bolstered by its return to profitability in 2023.
Revenue last year increased 24% to $2.8 billion. The company’s operating loss was $121 million for the year, and adjusted operating profit was $181 million, swinging from a loss of $49 million a year earlier.
Founded in 2005, Klarna is best known for its buy now, pay later model, a service that allows consumers to split purchases into installments. The company competes with Affirm, which went public in 2021, and Afterpay, which Block acquired for $29 billion in early 2022. Klarna’s major shareholders include venture firms Sequoia Capital and Atomico, as well as SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
Docusign rose more than 14% after reporting stronger-than-expected earnings after the bell Thursday.
“We’ve really stabilized and I think started to turn the corner on the core business,” CEO Allan Thygesen said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “We’ve become much more efficient.”
Here’s how the company performed in the fourth quarter FY2025 compared to LSEG estimates:
Earnings per share: 86 cents vs. 85 cents expected
Revenue: $776 million vs. $761 million
The earnings beat was boosted in part by the electronic signature service’s new artificial intelligence-enabled content called Docusign IAM, a platform for optimizing processes involving agreements.
“It’s tremendously valuable,” Thygesen said. “It’s opening a treasure trove of data. … We’re seeing excellent pickup.”
Looking to fiscal year 2026, Thygesen said Docusign expects IAM to account for low double digits of the total growth of the business by Q4.
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Thygesen said the company is also partnering with Microsoft and Google, which the company does not view as competitors because they’re “not looking to become agreement management specialists.”
Despite consumer sentiment and demand dipping across the board due to tariff uncertainty, Thygesen said the company has not seen anything yet in its transactional activity to indicate a slowdown in demand or growth.
“More and more people are going to want to sign things electronically,” Thygesen said.
The company reported subscription revenue at $757 million, marking a 9% year-over-year increase. Docusign said it expects first-quarter revenue between $745 million and $749 million and projects full-year revenue between $3.129 billion and $3.141 billion.
Docusign reported net income of $83.50 million, or 39 cents per share, compared to net income of $27.24 million, or 13 cents per share, a year ago. Fourth-quarter revenue of $776 million was up 9% from the year-ago quarter.
DocuSign went public in 2018 at a $6 billion valuation. The company’s share price soared during the pandemic as demand for remote services boomed during lockdowns and social restrictions, hitting record highs in 2021 before plummeting. Thygesen, who previously worked at Google, joined the company in September 2022 after DocuSign’s massive slide.
Less than two months ago, the tech industry’s top leaders flocked to Washington, D.C., for the presidential inauguration, part of an effort to strike a friendly tone with President Donald Trump after a contentious first go-round in the White House.
Thus far, they’ve avoided any nasty social media posts from the president. But their treatment by investors has been anything but warm.
Over the last three weeks, since the Nasdaq touched its high for the year, the seven most valuable U.S. tech companies — often called “the Magnificent Seven” — have lost a combined $2.7 trillion in market value. The sell-off has pushed the Nasdaq to its lowest level since September.
As of Thursday, the tech-heavy index was down 4.9% for the week, heading for its worst weekly performance in six months. If it ends up down more than 5.8%, it would be the steepest weekly drop since January 2022.
Sparking the downdraft was President Trump’s promise to slap high tariffs on top trading partners, including China, Mexico and Canada, along with mass firings of government workers. The combination of a potential trade war and rising unemployment is particularly troubling news for consumer and business spending and has raised fears of a recession.
Additionally, many technology companies import key parts from abroad, and rely on trade partners for manufacturing.
This isn’t what Wall Street was expecting.
Following Trump’s election victory in November, the market jumped on prospects of diminished regulation and favorable tax policies. The Nasdaq climbed to a record close on Dec. 16, capping a more than 9% rally over about six weeks after the election.
Since then, electric car maker Tesla has lost close to half its value, despite — or perhaps because of — the central role that CEO Elon Musk is playing in the Trump administration.
The Nasdaq’s high point for the year came on Feb. 19, about a month into Trump’s second term. But it finished that week lower and has continued its precipitous decline.
Here’s how the seven megacaps have fared over that stretch:
Apple, the world’s most valuable company and the only remaining member of the $3 trillion club, has lost $529 billion in market cap since the close on Feb. 19. The iPhone maker is down 17%.
Microsoft, which was previously worth over $3 trillion, has fallen by $267 billion in the past three weeks, a drop of close to 9% for the software giant.
Nvidia, the chipmaker that’s been the biggest beneficiary of the artificial intelligence boom, also slid below $3 trillion over the course of losing $577 billion in value, the biggest dollar decline in the group. Like Apple, the stock is down 17% since the Nasdaq peaked.
Amazon is down by $347 billion, falling by 14%, while Alphabet is off by $275 billion after a 12% decline. Meta has shed $286 billion in market cap, a 16% drop.
Tesla has seen by far the biggest percentage decline at 33%, equaling $386 billion in value.
Goldman Sachs on Wednesday referred to the group as the “Maleficent 7.” Chief U.S. equity strategist David Kostin noted that the basket now trades at its lowest valuation premium relative to the S&P 500 since 2017. Goldman cut its price target on the benchmark index to 6,200 from 6,500. The S&P 500 closed on Thursday at 5,521.52.
“We believe investors will require either a catalyst that improves the economic growth outlook or clear asymmetry to the upside before they try to ‘catch the falling knife’ and reverse the recent market momentum,” Kostin wrote.