Sam Altman speaks in San Francisco in 2017. (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch, Creative Commons 2.0)

Sam Altman, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor who leads the OpenAI artificial intelligence company, is joining the Expedia Group board.

Expedia Group is expanding the board to 12 members with the addition of Altman, the Bellevue, Wash.-based company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier this year, Altman left his role as the president of the Y Combinator startup accelerator to lead OpenAI in its pursuit of general artificial intelligence, advanced forms of AI with expertise across different domains. The addition of Altman hints at Expedia Group’s broader ambitions to use technology to reshape the travel experience.

The company, which is preparing to move to a new headquarters campus on the Seattle waterfront, includes travel brands such as Vrbo, Travelocity, Orbitz, HomeAway and many others, in addition to the flagship Expedia.com.

This is Altman’s second recent connection to Seattle-area tech companies. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI in July as part of a new partnership between the companies.

We’ve contacted Expedia Group for more information. Here’s the text of the Expedia Group filing about Altman.

On September 10, 2019, the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Expedia Group, Inc. (the “Company”) expanded the size of the Board from eleven to twelve members and elected Samuel Altman to fill the newly-created directorship.

Mr. Altman is the Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of OpenAI an organization dedicated to ensuring artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. From February 2014 through March 2019, he served as President of Y Combinator, a provider of advice and seed financing for startups. Earlier in his career, Mr. Altman co-founded Loopt, Inc., a provider of mobile location-based services, and served as its Chief Executive Officer until it was acquired by Green Dot Corporation in March 2012, after which he held a number of senior executive positions at Green Dot, including Executive Vice President, Mobile Products and Technology, through December 2013, and served as a member of its Board of Directors from March 2013 through April 2016. Mr. Altman has also been the General Partner of Hydrazine Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm, since April 2012. He has invested in a number of private companies, including Reddit, Inc., which operates a social sharing and aggregation website, and Helion Energy, Inc. and Oklo, Inc., which are both developing clean energy solutions. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of all three companies and as Chairman of Helion and Oklo.

Mr. Altman will be compensated in accordance with the Company’s standard compensation policies and practices for the Board, the components of which were disclosed in the Company’s Form 10-K/A, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 29, 2019. Mr. Altman has not been appointed to serve as a member of any committee of the Board.

Developing story, more to come.

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