Overview

• Speaking with Rowan Cheung at DevDay on Monday, the OpenAI CEO said the opportunity space for building in AI is unusually wide for people in their early 20s.
• Altman said he lacks the free mental space to start something new now but believes there are many compelling products to build in the current AI wave.
• He pointed to sharply higher college costs, with some four‑year degrees topping roughly $500,000, and easier‑to‑use coding tools as key factors lowering barriers to entrepreneurship.
• Investor and accelerator signals echo the trend, with a16z calling this the best time in a decade for dropouts and YC’s share of college students or new grads rising from about 10% to about 30% over two years.
• In April, Palantir launched a paid Meritocracy Fellowship for recent high school graduates not enrolled in college, and Altman noted that durable product advantages often emerge through iteration, citing ChatGPT’s unplanned memory feature.