(Recasts, adds details from filing, background on Klein and Altman)
March 15 (Reuters) - Y Combinator's Sam Altman is joining forces with veteran Wall Street dealmaker Michael Klein to launch a blank-check firm that seeks to raise up to $1 billion, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.
Altman, who will also be designated as the co-founder of AltC Acquisition Corp, continues to be chairman at Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator, which over the years has influenced the creation of dozens of leading startups including Airbnb and Dropbox Inc .
Altman's blockbuster tie-up with Klein comes as dealmaking through special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) continues to scale new highs and record volumes of deals get signed.
According to data from Dealogic, SPACs have already raised about $79 billion though IPOs this year and are poised to comfortably overtake last year's tally of $82 billion.
A SPAC is a shell company that raises money in an IPO to merge with a privately held company which then becomes publicly traded as a result. Merger with a SPAC is an alternative to going for an IPO.
Klein, a former Citigroup banker, has already raised billions through his other blank-check firms.
In February, one of Klein's SPACs, Churchill Capital IV Corp
, took electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors public in a $24-billion deal, making it the biggest SPAC deal till date.
Altman, who is also the co-founder and CEO of artificial-intelligence research firm OpenAI, sits on the boards of Reddit and online travel agency Expedia Group Inc . He is also the chairman of Helion Energy Inc and Oklo Inc, which focus on clean energy solutions.
Last year, Altman and his brothers formed a fund to invest in technology companies focused on areas including non-carbon energy and vaccine development.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Anirban Sen)
((Niket.Nishant@thomsonreuters.com;))
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