Ultraman Wealth Closed-Loop Exposed: Helion's Holdings Surge to $4.1 Billion, Previously Facilitated OpenAI's $500 Million Investment

ME News update, June 23 (UTC+8). According to Beating Monitoring, court documents leaked through The Wall Street Journal’s report about the lawsuit Elon Musk filed against OpenAI disclose a “wealth closed loop” in which Sam Altman used OpenAI business contracts to inflate the valuation of his personal investments. Because Altman does not hold equity in OpenAI, his financial returns rely entirely on external startups in which he invests personally. The operating model of the wealth closed loop is: OpenAI signs procurement contracts or cooperation agreements to boost a startup’s valuation, then attracts OpenAI’s major shareholders (such as Thrive Capital) or partners (such as SoftBank) to take over the investment at a high premium, enabling Altman to directly realize a rapid surge in his personal wealth.

In June 2026, after OpenAI’s major shareholder Thrive Capital invested in the nuclear fusion company Helion at a valuation of $15.5 billion, insiders revealed that Altman’s personal stake in Helion had doubled to at least $4.1 billion. In 2025, Altman had asked OpenAI to invest about $500 million in Helion, which made some employees uneasy; OpenAI then declined the investment. However, the two sides signed a revised new cooperation agreement in March 2026, and Altman stepped down as Helion’s director that same month to avoid conflicts.

In addition, after chipmaker Cerebras received an OpenAI chip procurement commitment and successfully completed its IPO, the value of Altman’s holdings in Cerebras surged by more than 6 times compared with December 2025. And after the life extension startup Retro Biosciences reached a research partnership with OpenAI, according to evidence disclosed in Elon Musk’s lawsuit, Altman’s stake in Retro had reached $258 million as of December 2025.

Currently, at least 10 companies in which Altman has invested have related-party transactions with OpenAI. The U.S. House Oversight Committee has launched a formal investigation, and multiple state attorneys general have also called on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to review Altman.

(Source: BlockBeats)