Sam Altman Gifts ₹1.5 Crore AI-Themed Swiss Watches To Six OpenAI Team Members

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has commissioned a series of custom luxury watches from Swiss manufacturer Vanguart, each priced at approximately Rs. 1.5 crore, and presented six of them to fellow employees, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The watches are based on Vanguart's existing futuristic titanium Orb model, typically starting around $180,000.

Photos of the timepieces reveal the OpenAI logo and phrases from the company's internal lexicon, such as "compute is destiny" and "scaling" engraved around the rotor and on the crown pusher, respectively. The case back features a Python-style line of code: "if AGI.aligned: deploy()" - a reference to OpenAI's cautious approach to artificial general intelligence.

Vanguart co-founder Axel Leuenberger explained that roughly one-third of the watchmaker's 33-person team worked on the OpenAI commission. The watches come with a sporty rubber strap and a dual-winding mechanism. Vanguart has produced fewer than 200 watches since its inception, making the seven OpenAI pieces a significant portion of their total output.

This isn't the first time OpenAI has gifted high-end watches to internal staff; earlier this month, head of applied research Boris Power showcased a custom OpenAI-branded Tudor watch, with around 400 units reportedly produced. However, Altman's affinity for luxury extends beyond watches - he owns several expensive assets, including a Koenigsegg Regera hypercar and a McLaren F1, as well as various properties across the globe.