> I cannot find a single action of anyone that cannot be construed as an attempt to get them power/money/influence

Try the other way around, via negativa. We definitely can find plenty of examples of people stepping out of positions of power, deciding not to do something because of moral conflict, etc. Is there any case of such action from Sam?

Fuck, anyone with any semblance of moral fortitude would refuse to take money from the Saudis. But he had no problem to do it.

> joined an AI research organisation at a time when everybody thought the big advances were much further away than they turned out to be.

No, this is selection bias. What he did was to put himself in a position where he could have his fingers on any and every possible pie, and then when of these things turned out to be something believed to be valuable by people with money, then he manouvered himself to be in the driver seat.