OpenAI to be valued at $500 billion in new employee share sale

Key Takeaways

$6B in shares to be sold by staff to SoftBank, Thrive, Dragoneer, valuing ChatGPT maker above SpaceX.
Secondary sale talks follow $40B SoftBank-led funding round at $300B valuation.

OpenAI is in talks to be valued at $500 billion through a new employee share sale, according to a report from The New York Times.

The transaction, still under discussion, would involve current and former OpenAI employees selling about $6 billion worth of stock to an investor group that includes SoftBank, Thrive Capital, and Dragoneer Investment Group. The structure is a secondary market deal, allowing staff to cash out equity without requiring the company to go public.

At $500 billion, OpenAI would surpass Elon Musk’s SpaceX to become the most valuable privately held company, according to CB Insights. The AI firm has rapidly scaled in valuation over the past year, from $157 billion in October to $300 billion in March.

That March round, led primarily by SoftBank, committed $40 billion in funding, of which $30 billion could still be delivered before year-end. Bloomberg reported that OpenAI expects revenue to triple in 2025 to $12.7 billion, with the launch of its new GPT-5 model fueling adoption.