Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said he was "peer-pressured and tricked" into applying for an investment banking internship at Goldman Sachs during his sophomore year, but ultimately declined the offer to pursue startups. Speaking at the Internapalooza Conference last month, Altman said he chose to focus on his startup, Loopt, before joining the first class of Y Combinator and later founding OpenAI, which recently completed a $7 billion share sale and is reportedly eyeing a potential trillion-dollar IPO as soon as the second half of 2026. Goldman Sachs is among the investment banks working with OpenAI on its potential public-market plans, according to Fortune. Altman argued that starting a company can be a better alternative to moving up the corporate ladder, noting it is now easier to turn down banking internships because of opportunities created by AI. He said working at a firm like Goldman Sachs involves people who "put too much effort into trying to get taken seriously," and that the hierarchical nature of banking leaves less room for young professionals to create. OpenAI seeks to identify and back young, unproven talent by giving young employees responsibility for major projects. The company has hired more than 100 former investment bankers from Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley to train AI models, and is reportedly planning to increase its workforce to 8,000 by the end of the year.