
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ranked first in Vanity Fair's 2026 New Establishment list of most influential people in the U.S., ahead of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Elon Musk, with the magazine linking his influence to ChatGPT and AI development, comparing him to Oppenheimer.
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Vanity Fair's annual New Establishment list ranks individuals based on influence and real power in the United States, excluding heads of state and foreign figures whose influence is not directly felt in the U.S.
NEW YORK, October 5. /TASS/. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has taken first place in the ranking of people with the greatest influence and real power in the United States, according to the Vanity Fair’s annual list The New Establishment 2026.
He was ahead of Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceXAI.
The publication says that only a few people in history have amassed enough power to truly change the world, and it calls Altman one of them. The magazine links his influence to the launch of ChatGPT and the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies. According to the publication, Altman may be perceived in the future as "the Oppenheimer of our time."
Amodei was ranked second, Musk third, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang fourth.
The top ten also includes Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Ted Sarandos of Netflix, and Neal Mohan of YouTube.
The magazine said the ranking was not compiled based on the size of one’s fortune or the number of followers, but was intended to assess "real power." Vanity Fair did not include heads of state and foreign figures whose influence is not directly felt in the United States in the list.
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