OpenAI CEO Sam Altman marries partner Oliver Mulherin in seaside ceremony

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has married his partner, Oliver Mulherin, in a seaside ceremony.

Altman, 38, confirmed the news in a text to NBC News after photos of the wedding began circulating on social media Thursday. The photos show the San Francisco couple surrounded by palm trees and about a dozen guests at an undisclosed tropical beach location.

Altman, a native of the St. Louis area, for years avoided the public spotlight as he accumulated influence in the tech industry as the CEO of Y Combinator, a storied tech startup incubator and investment firm. But as CEO of OpenAI, he has ramped up his public appearances and media profile, including testifying before Congress. Time magazine named him “CEO of the Year” in 2023.

Mulherin is an Australian software engineer who, with Altman, splits his time between San Francisco and a ranch in Napa, California, according to The New York Times.

Last year, Altman and Mulherin attended a state dinner at the White House that President Joe Biden hosted for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Altman has rapidly gained prominence as CEO of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company behind ChatGPT, the advanced chatbot that upended Silicon Valley a year ago and inspired tech companies big and small to shift their resources into competing AI projects. On Wednesday, OpenAI opened the GPT Store — essentially an app store for AI apps.

Altman co-founded the firm as a nonprofit organization in 2015 with several tech billionaires, including Elon Musk, and as CEO he has steered OpenAI into becoming one of the world’s hottest startups. OpenAI’s board briefly ousted him in November in a fight for control of the company, but he returned as CEO four days later after a dramatic boardroom battle.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com