Why is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Eyeing a Career in Farming?

Even CEOs need a fallback plan or two. Especially if today’s market is anything to go by. 

Leadership tenure is always short at the top. But the last few years have seen the dreaded ‘churn’ increase in the face of complexity, new challenges and a perennially uncertain world. 

According to PwC’s 2025 Global CEO Survey, a majority of leaders expect to stay in the role for no more than five years. 

In 2023 alone, over 1,400 US CEOs resigned, while a Harvard Law School study found that the median CEO Tenure among S&P 500 companies has decreased 205 in less than a decade, from six years in 2013 to 4.8 years in 2022. 

It’s why succession planning constantly tops strategy lists. Handled well, it sets up the company for a smooth transition and lets leaders firm up effective post-CEO plans. 

And those plans don’t always have to involve the boardroom. Not least if you’re OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who plans to step back from CEO-ing and take up farming. 

AI, energy and farming

Altman touched on his future plans during an episode on MD MEETS, with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner.

In the conversation he discussed the promises and perils of AI, superintelligence and how we’ve already reached the era in which machines are smarter than humans. 

Inevitably, the conversation touched on how and when AI will take on human jobs, including the CEO role. 

“I think there will come a time when AI can be a much better CEO of OpenAI than me, and I will be nothing but enthusiastic the day that happens,” he said. 

“It doesn’t scare me, it doesn’t make me sad, it’s just like I did this one thing that has been automated and I wanted it to be automated and that’s kind of what we’re doing.”

Reflecting on the growth of OpenAI, and the pace of AI adoption more broadly, Altman said the last decade has been “very stressful”. 

“Since the launch of ChatGPT, my life has gone so crazy that I do nothing but work and hang out with my family, and all of my hobbies have gone by the wayside,” he added. 

“I have a farm that I live on some of the time and I really love it. I want to go and be that farmer. The two things I care most about professionally are AI and energy, and if I can make a big contribution to those two, I think that’s enough.”

A people-centric future

The OpenAI leader knows the true potential of AI more than most. He told the host: “In the short team, AI will destroy a lot of jobs. In the long term, like every other technological revolution, I assume we will figure out completely new things to do.”

Describing how human ambition continues to drive us forward, he said: “At every major technological evolution, very smart people have said ‘this is it, this is the end, there’s going to be no more jobs’. It’s always been a failure of imagination.” 

What makes humans unique, said Altman, isn’t our “intellectual capacity”, but the way we interact with each other. 

“Humans, human society, we have such main character energy we don’t really care that the machines are smarter than us. They already are,” he noted. 

With this in mind, he explained that future jobs will likely be more “people-centric”, adding “we just cannot imagine what’s going to happen and which new forms of economy and growth and value creation are going to happen”.

Finding AI-savvy workers

People-centric or not, OpenAI has a strong stake in the future jobs game. 

On 1 October the company announced in a blog by CEO of Applications Fidji Simo the launch of Open AI Jobs Platform, which will help companies and small businesses hire AI-savvy workers. 

“If you’re a business looking to hire an AI-savvy employee, or you just need help with a specific task, finding the right person can be hit-or-miss,” Fidji explained.

“The OpenAI Jobs Platform will have knowledgeable, experienced candidates at every level and opportunities for anyone looking to put their skills to use. And we’ll use AI to help find the perfect matches between what companies need and what workers can offer.”

The platform will serve large enterprises looking to fill multiple new AI-focused roles and small and local businesses, as well as local government organisations. 

The work is being developed and rolled out with several major US employers, including the likes of John Deere, Boston Consulting Group and Walmart.