When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted a photo of a newborn’s hand in February 2025, millions saw the birth announcement. Few knew much about the other parent: Oliver Mulherin, a 32-year-old Australian software engineer who has spent the past year quietly investing in one of biotech’s most contentious frontiers.
Mulherin married Altman in January 2024 at a beachside ceremony in Hawaii. Since then, he has signed away billions through the Giving Pledge and backed a startup working to genetically edit human embryos, a practice banned in the United States and most developed nations.
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Who Is Oliver Mulherin?
Born in Melbourne in 1993, Mulherin studied computer science at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 2016. His LinkedIn profile shows a path through several tech companies, but he has kept personal details off social media. His private Instagram account has about 670 followers.
The couple’s relationship became public in June 2023 when they attended a White House state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Until then, Mulherin had stayed out of the spotlight despite reportedly dating Altman since 2019.
Friends call him “Ollie.” He splits time between a home on Russian Hill in San Francisco and a renovated ranch in Napa Valley. That’s about all the public knows of his personal life.
From Australian Startups to Silicon Valley
Mulherin’s career started in 2015 when he co-founded PROPL, a Melbourne startup focused on AI applications. The company folded in 2017.
After PROPL, he worked at the IOTA Foundation on Internet of Things projects, then moved to the United States. Between 2019 and 2020, he held overlapping positions at SPARK Neuro, a neuro analytics firm, and Broadwing, a data management company in New York.
In August 2020, Mulherin joined Meta as a software engineer at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters. He worked there for two years before leaving in November 2022. What he has done professionally since then remains unclear.
Preventive: The Gene Editing Bet
Mulherin’s most significant public move came through his investment in Preventive, a San Francisco biotech startup that raised $30 million to pursue embryo gene editing. The Wall Street Journal reported that Mulherin drove the couple’s involvement in the company.
“I chose to invest in Preventive because I care about research that helps people avoid disease,” Mulherin told the Journal. “Sam is supportive, as he is with all of my work, and of the cause.”
Preventive aims to edit genes in embryos to prevent hereditary diseases like cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease. The company’s CEO, Lucas Harrington, trained under Jennifer Doudna, who won the Nobel Prize for developing CRISPR gene editing technology.
The problem: embryo editing is illegal in the United States. According to the Journal, Preventive has looked at conducting research in the United Arab Emirates, where regulations allow such work.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also invested in Preventive. He posted on X in November 2025 that “more than 300 million people globally live with genetic disease” and argued research should determine if therapies can “cure these diseases at birth.”
Critics see the technology differently. Gene editing mistakes can pass to future generations. Some worry the technology will lead to parents selecting traits like intelligence or height, creating what detractors call “designer babies.”
The Giving Pledge and Philanthropy
In May 2024, Mulherin and Altman signed the Giving Pledge, joining over 240 billionaires who have committed to donate most of their wealth. Their letter ran under 100 words.
“We would not be making this pledge if it weren’t for the hard work, brilliance, generosity, and dedication to improve the world of many people that built the scaffolding of society that let us get here,” they wrote. “We intend to focus our giving on supporting technology that helps create abundance for people.”
Bloomberg estimates Altman’s wealth at $2 billion, primarily from investments in companies like Reddit and Stripe. Altman does not own equity in OpenAI.
Past giving from Altman includes a $10 million pledge in 2015 to launch YC Research, a nonprofit research lab. He has also funded research into universal basic income programs.
Marriage and Family
The couple married on January 10, 2024, in a ceremony attended by fewer than 15 people. Altman’s brother Jack, founder of HR software company Lattice, officiated. Both grooms wore white shirts, beige pants, and white sneakers.
Photos leaked online shortly after, and Altman confirmed the marriage to NBC News. In a March 2024 interview with The Advocate, Altman said married life felt “different and better” than he expected.
Their son arrived early via surrogacy on February 22, 2025. Altman wrote on X that the baby would stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for some time but was doing well. “I have never felt such love,” he posted.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella congratulated the couple, calling parenthood “one of life’s most profound and rewarding experiences.”
Public Role, Private Life
Mulherin has given no interviews and makes few public statements. When he does speak, it’s usually through written statements to reporters or brief social media posts.
This approach contrasts sharply with Altman, who regularly appears at conferences, testifies before Congress, and sits for podcast interviews. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has made Altman one of the tech industry’s most recognizable CEOs.
Mulherin’s technical background in AI and the Internet of Things aligns with Altman’s work, but he appears content to stay in the background. His career since leaving Meta remains largely unknown, though his Preventive investment suggests a growing interest in biotechnology.
What Comes Next
At 32, Mulherin has decades ahead to shape how his wealth affects the world. The Preventive investment offers one answer: he’s willing to fund research that faces both legal barriers and ethical scrutiny.
Whether editing human embryos will ever gain widespread acceptance remains uncertain. What’s clear is that Mulherin and other tech investors are putting serious money behind the idea, even as regulators in most countries say no.
For now, Mulherin remains what he seems to prefer: the engineer behind the scenes, making calculated bets on technologies that could reshape human health or reignite debates over how far science should go.
