TreeHacks 2026 applications are now open! 🌴
We’re flying in 1000 hackers from all over the world (flights and food are covered). Top companies, insane prizes and unforgettable experiences.
February 13 - 15, 2026
treehacks dot com
We sat down with @sama for a fireside chat at TreeHacks 2026.
We chatted about his time at Stanford, the early days of OpenAI, and the future!
0:00 Steam tunneling and freshman year at Stanford
2:03 Founding Loopt in soph year
4:16 YC changes everything
6:16 Dropping out of Stanford
8:16 How to raise
10:38 How OpenAI was born
15:18 How he met OpenAI co-founders
17:03 OpenAI's first day in @gdb's apartment
19:01 When moment when OpenAI started to work
20:33 Why GPT-2 was the turning point
22:07 AGI will be here in >2 years.
25:32 What should people build now?
29:57 How AI will impact politics, religion, and society
34:24 How do you compete with OpenAI?
36:40 Is OpenAI *really* burning cash dangerously fast?
37:46 Sam, are you happy?
40:23 What AI subfield today feels like OpenAI in 2016?
42:26 Custom silicon & hardware
0:40 Employee 10 at Palantir, designed their logo
0:51 Palantir pizza story at Stanford
1:53 Slept only 4 hours a night for about 21 days
2:13 150,000 lines of code in his nights and weekends
3:22 Money is no longer the limitation. Code is no longer the limitation.
3:44 Can you sit across from someone who has a problem that isn't your problem?
4:07 The YC t-shirt story
7:54 Boil the ocean
9:09 Intelligence is too cheap to meter
10:02 The only addiction that really matters is your addiction to understanding other people. That's the only moat left.
Such an honor to be judging the @hackwithtrees hackathon at Stanford University this morning. Starting in the NVIDIA auditorium, of course.
Everyone is so young and smart. Something like 350 teams. Thousands of developers.
Largely seen as the best hackathon in the world.
This weekend I'll be at Stanford's @hackwithtrees hackathon.
I'm filming a documentary about it and interviewing tons of devs about the projects they're building.
If you're there and you see me come give me a high five. 🏕️
Day 1 Recap of TreeHacks 2026!
- Checked in ~1000 hackers
- Opening ceremony with Sam Altman, Garry Tan, Ali Partovi, and more
- Started hacking at 9:30
- On Call Cafe Pop Up
- Sponsorship Workshops
This year, we have over $500,000 in prizes:
tungsten cubes, courtside tickets, drones, iphones, nyc trips, guaranteed internships and interviews, meta glasses, supercomputers much much more
🌲Treehacks 2026 Opening Ceremony Speaker: Garry Tan (@garrytan)
@ycombinator will be hosting an afterparty on Sunday, February 15th from 5-8 PM (right after the closing ceremony). It's a great opportunity to hang out with YC partners, have a bite to eat, and a chance to get some special YC swag.
RSVP at the link below:
events.ycombinator.com/treeh…