Leading the AI infrastructure push: A look back at how 2025 played out for Sam Altman and OpenAI

If 2023 marked the arrival of generative AI and 2024 its rapid commercialisation, 2025 was the year artificial intelligence became an infrastructure race. At the centre of it all stood Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, steering the company from an experimental research lab into what he openly describes as the backbone of the digital economy.

The ambition is audacious. In an interaction with economist Tyler Cowen on his podcast (Conversations with Tyler), Altman said his goal was to build the first major company effectively run by an AI CEO….