In a significant turn of events, OpenAI has surpassed SpaceX to become the most valuable private company in the world, following a $6.6 billion employee share sale that set its valuation at $500 billion. This achievement highlights the intense investor enthusiasm surrounding the artificial intelligence sector.
As reported by Bloomberg, this secondary sale allows both current and former employees who have owned shares for a minimum of two years to sell their stock to a select group of investors, such as Thrive Capital, SoftBank Group, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price.
This latest transaction marks OpenAI’s second significant tender offer within a year, succeeding a $1.5 billion deal with SoftBank in November. Reports in January indicated that the Japanese conglomerate was in discussions to allocate as much as $25 billion for OpenAI.
Following the news of the OpenAI share sale, SoftBank’s U.S.-traded shares (SFTBY) saw a rise of 1.7%, reaching $66.04 on Thursday, a reflection of the investor excitement for AI-related investments.
The $500 billion valuation represents a dramatic increase for OpenAI compared to its prior valuation of $300 billion earlier this year following a $40 billion funding round spearheaded by SoftBank in March. Now, OpenAI stands at the forefront, outpacing SpaceX, which is valued at around $400 billion, thus claiming the top position among private firms.
Although concerns have arisen regarding the introduction of GPT-5, investor confidence appears strong. In September, OpenAI and Nvidia announced a key partnership in infrastructure: OpenAI intends to implement at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia technology, with Nvidia committing up to $100 billion depending on the deployment of each gigawatt. Jensen Huang referred to this as advancing “AI infrastructure from the labs into everyday use.”
This announcement aligns with the ongoing Stargate initiative, a collaboration between OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle aimed at enhancing America’s AI infrastructure, supported by the Trump Administration.
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This share sale also enables employees to access liquidity, which can help the company retain talent amidst competitive nine-figure compensation packages offered by rivals like Meta, which is on an aggressive hiring spree for its new Superintelligence Labs.
The strategic timing of this event also coincides with structural changes at OpenAI. In May, the organization removed its capped-profit structure amidst ongoing legal disputes with co-founder Elon Musk, who has filed multiple lawsuits against the company. Musk has criticized OpenAI for allegedly straying from its foundational nonprofit principles and purported attempts to appropriate xAI’s data and intellectual property.
