OpenAI CEO Sam Altman briefly gave himself a brand new identify on X: “Ram Altman.”
The change adopted a joke about his urge for food for pc reminiscence after latest controversial feedback on how the much-desired reminiscence is allotted.
Responding to an Altman submit about folks retaining management over AI’s future, an X consumer wrote “sam come right here come right here” alongside a picture of a number of reminiscence chips main towards a cardboard field propped up like a entice.
Altman replied, “i lol’d.”
When one other consumer requested whether or not he might rename his account “Ram Altman,” he answered, “OK yeah” — and did.
The change was short-lived. By 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, the CEO’s identify had reverted to “Sam Altman” on his X profile.
It was unclear why he modified it again and OpenAI declined to remark when contacted by Enterprise Insider.
Altman’s joke landed after latest remarks in regards to the world’s limited supply of DRAM, a sort of reminiscence that’s key to each private computing and the GPUs that energy AI information facilities.
On an October 29 episode of the “Cheeky Pint” podcast, he argued that operating AI fashions on private computer systems might depart scarce reminiscence underused. In a market the place provide is tight, he mentioned, cloud data centers can use it extra intensively.
Sam Altman joined John Collison for a pint to debate the scaling legal guidelines of agent groups, proving Navier-Stokes, why hand-written software program will quickly look quaint, the optics of token pricing, and what computing appears to be like like past the keyboard and display screen.
00:00:00 Introduction… pic.twitter.com/q7jsLCszLW
— Cheeky Pint (@CheekyPint) October 29, 2026
The feedback drew criticism from some individuals who took them to imply shoppers ought to have much less entry to reminiscence so information facilities might have extra.
Elon Musk, who has feuded with Altman for years, weighed in on Sunday, posting a meme on X with the caption: “The folks need to have their RAM too!”
Altman used the X change to push again on the subject.
however solely as a result of…i truly do need the world to have tons of reminiscence and other people to place as a lot as they need of their computer systems, and it’s fucking annoying that this was taken out of context.
i’ve been arguing for the world to ramp up reminiscence manufacturing for a very long time.
— Ram Altman (@sama) November 4, 2026
He mentioned he desires the world to have “tons of reminiscence” and for folks to place as a lot as they need of their computer systems.
He added that he has lengthy argued for growing reminiscence manufacturing and was aggravated that his remarks had been taken out of context.
When one other consumer requested why he needed their RAM, Altman replied: “I need you to have a lot ram let’s construct extra.”
i need you to have a lot ram
lets construct extra
— Ram Altman (@sama) November 4, 2026
Altman’s clarification factors to the billion-dollar query beneath it: the way to meet demand for reminiscence in each information facilities and private computer systems.
His reply, a minimum of on X, was to make extra of it.
