OpenAI Valuation Soars To $500B After $6.6B Employee Stock Sale To Thrive, SoftBank, Others
Abu Dhabi’s MGX and T. Rowe Price also bought shares.
OpenAI employees have sold $6.6 billion worth of stock in a company-arranged buyback to investors, including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price, according to a Bloomberg report on Thursday.
The report, citing information from an unnamed source, stated that with the deal, OpenAI’s valuation has surged to $500 billion from $300 billion at its most recent funding round led by SoftBank earlier this year.
The rapid rise in the ChatGPT operator’s valuation underscores the incredible investor interest in AI technology and the startup’s current position as a frontrunner in the space. OpenAI faces growing pressure from tech giants like Google and Apple, as well as startups in the U.S., Europe, and China, which are undercutting its position as the leading consumer AI application and supplier of benchmark large language models (LLMs).
That said, with 700 million users globally and a projected $13 billion in revenue for OpenAI this year, ChatGPT currently reigns supreme.
The latest transaction, which has now closed, raises OpenAI’s valuation above that of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. A similar employee stock sale valued the rocket company at $400 billion in July. Meanwhile, OpenAI has had a busy few months. The company launched its new flagship model, ChatGPT 5, opened offices in India and South Korea, and committed to new investments in data centers.
Last week, OpenAI and Nvidia announced a deal in which the chip designer will invest $100 billion in OpenAI, OpenAI will utilize Nvidia’s computing capabilities, and the two will jointly develop AI products. On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for OpenAI, a private company, was ‘neutral’ as of the last reading.
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