Privately held artificial intelligence (AI) startup company OpenAI has been valued at $500 billion U.S. in its latest funding round.
OpenAI completed a secondary share sale totaling $6.6 billion U.S., allowing current and former employees to sell stock at a record $500 billion U.S. valuation.
Investors reported to have taken part in the latest stock offering include Thrive Capital, SoftBank (SFTBY), and T. Rowe Price (TROW), among many others.
However, while OpenAI authorized up to $10.3 billion U.S. in shares for sale, only about two-thirds of that amount was ultimately tendered by the AI company’s employees.
The share sale marks OpenAI’s second major tender offer in less than a year, following a $1.5 billion U.S. stock sale to Japanese holding company SoftBank in November 2024.
OpenAI’s new $500 billion U.S. valuation is up from $300 billion U.S. earlier this year.
The latest valuation cements OpenAI’s status as the world’s most valuable privately held company, surpassing rocket maker SpaceX’s valuation of $456 billion U.S.
OpenAI is among a growing number of startup companies that are using stock sales by employee to raise funds while remaining private.
The move is widely seen as a strategy to retain top talent and reward long-term employees without pursuing an initial public offering (IPO).
Other companies to employ the strategy include SpaceX, Stripe, and Databricks.
