Background and career
Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American Internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman is the co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for professional networking. He is also chairman of venture capital firm Village Global, a co-founder of Inflection AI, a co-founder of Manas AI, and a board member at Arc Institute. Hoffman has been an influential figure in political circles, a member of the Bilderberg Group since at least 2011 and the Council on Foreign Relations since 2015. He has actively participated in political funding and advocacy, contributing to various campaigns and organizations, and has been a vocal proponent of democratic institutions and humanism in technological innovation. As of May 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth to be $2.7 billion.
Hoffman was born on August 5, 1967, in Palo Alto, California. He was a year old when his parents, who were both attorneys, got divorced. Hoffman was an avid table-top role-playing gamer as a child and worked as an editor at the game company Chaosium, then based in Oakland, California, near his home. Hoffman attended high school at the progressive Putney School in Vermont, where he engaged in farming activities. He graduated from Stanford University in 1990 with a Bachelor of Science in symbolic systems and cognitive science. He was awarded a Marshall Scholarship for graduate study abroad, and he earned a Master of Studies (MSt) in philosophy from Wolfson College, Oxford, in 1993. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather was Theophilus Adam Wylie, a Presbyterian minister and Indiana University president pro tempore. Hoffman's uncle, Eric Hoffman, is a writer.
Hoffman joined Apple Computer in 1994, where he worked on eWorld, an early attempt at building an online service. AOL acquired eWorld in 1996. He later worked at Fujitsu before co-founding his first company, SocialNet.com, in 1997. It focused "on online dating and matching up people with similar interests, like golfers who were looking for partners in their neighborhood."
Hoffman was a member of PayPal's board of directors at the time it was founded. In January 2000, he left SocialNet and joined PayPal full-time as the company's COO. In June 2000, Hoffman became PayPal's Senior VP of Business Development, after a re-organization of PayPal's executive structure by then-CEO Elon Musk.
Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in December 2002 with two former colleagues from SocialNet (including Allen Blue) and one former colleague from his time at Fujitsu. LinkedIn launched on May 5, 2003, as one of the first business-oriented online social networks. Peter Thiel, a colleague of Hoffman's at PayPal, invested in LinkedIn. At the time of LinkedIn's IPO on May 19, 2011, Hoffman owned a stake worth an estimated $2.34 billion, not including any potential benefits from Greylock Partners, where he was named a partner in 2009. Microsoft proposed to acquire LinkedIn on June 13, 2016, for $26.2 billion in cash. Hoffman became a Microsoft board member on March 14, 2017.
In 2016, Reid Hoffman was among the first donors to OpenAI, a non-profit artificial intelligence research organization established by Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and others. In February 2018, Elon Musk departed from OpenAI's board, citing potential conflicts with his role at Tesla, due to Tesla's AI development for self-driving cars. Following Musk's exit, OpenAI faced financial challenges due to the shortfall in anticipated funding. With Hoffman's help, OpenAI transitioned to a "capped-profit" model by establishing a for-profit subsidiary to attract investment while maintaining its commitment to ethical AI development. Hoffman led the investment into the for-profit subsidiary through his family foundation and joined the company's board of directors. On March 3, 2023, Hoffman resigned from his board seat at OpenAI, citing a desire to avoid conflicts of interest between his board seat at OpenAI, investments in AI technology companies via Greylock Partners, and role as founder of Inflection AI.
