AI·OpenAIOpenAI staffers to sell $6 billion in stock to SoftBank, other investorsBy Kate ClarkBy BloombergBy Kate ClarkBy Bloomberg Open AI CEO Sam Altman speaks during Snowflake Summit 2025 in San Francisco on June 2.Justin Sullivan—Getty ImagesCurrent and former OpenAI employees plan to sell apximately $6 billion worth of s to an investor group that includes Thrive Capital, SoftBank Group Corp.
and Dragoneer Investment Group, in a deal that values the ChatGPT maker at $500 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The talks are early and the size of the sale could still change, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
The secondary investment is on top of SoftBank’s commitment to lead OpenAI’s $40 billion funding round, which values the company at $300 billion, according to another person familiar with the deal.
That round remains , with OpenAI recently securing $8.3 billion from a syndicate of investors. Representatives for Dragoneer and Thrive didn’t respond to requests for .
Spokespeople for OpenAI and SoftBank declined to . All three firms are existing OpenAI backers.
The secondary sale, which was first reported by Bloomberg, will give OpenAI employees a chance to get cash-rich amid a high-stakes talent war in the artificial intelligence industry.
Companies Meta Platforms Inc. are offering massive salaries to recruit AI talent from OpenAI and other startups.
This year, several OpenAI employees have exited for Meta, including Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT.
Allowing employees to sell s is an important tool for startups trying to retain top talent, without requiring the company to go public or be acquired.
In some cases, early investors also use these deals to sell down their stakes, though OpenAI investors are not eligible to do so in this round, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Current and former employees who spent at least two years at the company are able to participate.
With its participation in the sale, as well as its previous commitments, SoftBank is making a pivotal bet on the success of OpenAI.
In addition to those deals, the Japanese conglomerate headed by Masayoshi Son recently closed a separate $1 billion purchase of OpenAI employee s at a $300 billion valuation, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Negotiations for that deal started before talks around the $500 billion secondary valuation began, they said.
The $500 billion valuation would make OpenAI the world’s most valuable startup, surpassing Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The company expects revenue to triple this year to $12.7 billion, up from $3.7 billion in 2024, Bloomberg has reported.
And the secondary deal talks come on the heels of the release of its highly-anticipated GPT-5 model.
This week, OpenAI chief Sam Altman sat down with a group of reporters and d his vision for the company, including that it wants to spend trillions of dollars on the infrastructure required to run AI services in the “not very distant future.” “You should expect a bunch of economists to wring their hands and say, ‘This is so crazy, it’s so reckless,’ and whatever,” Altman said.
“And we’ll just be , ‘You know what? Let us do our thing.’” Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world. Explore this year's list.