OpenAI staff eye $6B stock sale, valuing company at $500B
Current and former employees of OpenAI are reportedly seeking to offload nearly $6 billion worth of the ChatGPT maker’s shares to a consortium of investors, including SoftBank Group and Thrive Capital. This potential transaction, a secondary share sale where existing stock changes hands between employees and investors, would underscore a significant surge in the company’s perceived value, pushing its valuation to an estimated $500 billion. This figure represents a remarkable increase from its current $300 billion valuation, reflecting OpenAI’s explosive growth in both user adoption and revenue, while also highlighting the fierce competition among artificial intelligence firms for top talent.
The discussions regarding this substantial share sale are understood to be in their preliminary stages, and the final size of the transaction could yet fluctuate. Should the deal materialize at the reported valuation, it would further solidify OpenAI’s position as one of the world’s most valuable private technology companies. Investment firms SoftBank, Thrive, and Dragoneer Investment Group, all of whom are existing investors in OpenAI, were contacted for comment but did not immediately respond.
SoftBank’s interest in this secondary offering adds another layer to its deepening involvement with the AI powerhouse. The Japanese conglomerate is already leading a separate, primary funding round for OpenAI, which aims to inject $40 billion directly into the company’s coffers. This dual engagement—participating in both a primary capital raise and a secondary employee share sale—signals SoftBank’s strong conviction in OpenAI’s future trajectory and its dominant role in the burgeoning AI landscape.
OpenAI, bolstered by the phenomenal success of its flagship product, ChatGPT, has demonstrated extraordinary financial performance. In the first seven months of the current year alone, the company effectively doubled its revenue, reaching an annualized run rate of $12 billion. Based on this rapid acceleration, industry projections suggest OpenAI is well on track to achieve $20 billion in revenue by the close of the year. The user base for its ChatGPT products has also swelled dramatically, with the Microsoft-backed entity now boasting approximately 700 million weekly active users, a substantial leap from about 400 million recorded in February. This rapid expansion in both financial metrics and user engagement serves as a compelling narrative for investors looking to capitalize on the transformative potential of artificial intelligence.