OpenAI employees to sell $6B in shares at $500B valuation, making it the world’s most valuable startup

OpenAI is closing in on a $500 billion valuation as employees prepare to cash out $6 billion in shares—an unprecedented move that would make the ChatGPT maker the world’s most valuable startup.

According to an exclusive report from Bloomberg, current and former employees who have spent at least two years in the company “plan to sell $6 billion worth of shares to investors, including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, and Dragoneer Investment Group. It comes on top of OpenAI’s ongoing $40 billion funding round, led by SoftBank, that values the company at $300 billion.

That round has already brought in $8.3 billion from a syndicate of backers, signaling massive confidence in Sam Altman’s AI company. Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg wrote:

“Current and former OpenAI employees plan to sell approximately $6 billion worth of shares 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.”

World’s Most Valuable Startup

The $500 billion figure isn’t just symbolic. If completed, OpenAI would take the crown as the world’s most valuable startup, eclipsing SpaceX while showing no signs of slowing down. Bloomberg reports that OpenAI expects its revenue to triple this year—jumping from $3.7 billion in 2024 to $12.7 billion in 2025.

The mechanics of the share sale are fairly typical for a company at this stage: employees who’ve been with OpenAI for at least two years will get a chance to cash in, while outside investors won’t be able to offload their stakes this time. These kinds of secondary deals give workers liquidity without forcing a company to go public or sell itself, a tactic that’s especially handy in Silicon Valley’s fierce fight for AI talent.

That fight has already been heating up. Meta has been poaching engineers from OpenAI, dangling massive pay packages. Several high-profile departures have already taken place this year, including Shengjia Zhao, a co-creator of ChatGPT. Giving employees a way to realize some gains without leaving could help OpenAI hold onto its top researchers at a moment when rivals are circling.

SoftBank, for its part, has been steadily increasing its exposure. The Japanese conglomerate already closed a separate $1 billion purchase of OpenAI employee shares at a $300 billion valuation, according to people familiar with the matter. That deal was wrapped up before negotiations around the $500 billion figure began.

This latest valuation push arrives on the heels of OpenAI’s GPT-5 release, a model that has been generating buzz across the industry. At a briefing with reporters this week, Altman laid out an audacious vision for the company’s future, saying OpenAI plans to spend trillions on infrastructure to keep scaling AI services.

“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 like, ‘You know what? Let us do our thing.’”

If these share sales close as expected, Altman may soon be running the most valuable startup on the planet—with employees who are not just equity-rich on paper, but cash-rich in reality.

OpenAI co-founder and CEO: Sam Altman