OpenAI in talks with investors about share sale at $500 billion valuation

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI attends the annual Allen and Co

Grogan | CNBCOpenAI is in talks with investors a potential stock sale at a valuation of roughly $500 billion, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.The talks are in early stages and would involve a secondary sale with s sold by current and former employees, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are confidential

Thrive Capital, an investor in OpenAI, could lead the potential round, the sources said

Bloomberg was first to report on the talks

The company announced a $40 billion funding round in March at a $300 billion, by far the largest amount ever raised by a private company

Last week, OpenAI announced its most recent $8.3 billion tranche tied to that funding round

The models aim to serve as lower-cost options that developers and reers can easily run and customize, OpenAI said.The company said earlier this week that ChatGPT was to hit 700 million weekly active users.OpenAI rival Anthropic, meanwhile, is in talks to secure between $3 billion and $5 billion in new funding led by Iconiq Capital at a potential $170 billion valuation, up from $61.5 billion in March

CNBC previously reported that OpenAI's annual recurring revenue is jected to top $20 billion by year-end, up from $10 billion in June.WATCH: OpenAI releases two new open-weight AI modelswatch now2:1802:18OpenAI releases two new open-weight AI modelsCheck