OpenAI becomes world’s most valuable private company with $500B valuation after $6.6B share sale

OpenAI just secured its spot at the very top of the startup ladder. The company closed a $6.6 billion secondary share sale that values the AI giant at a staggering $500 billion, making it the most valuable privately held company on the planet, overtaking SpaceX’s $456 billion valuation.

The transaction, first reported by Bloomberg, provides current and former employees with the opportunity to cash out some of their equity while the company remains private.

“OpenAI has completed a deal to help employees sell shares in the company at a $500 billion valuation, propelling the ChatGPT owner past Elon Musk’s SpaceX to become the world’s largest startup,” Bloomberg reported.

OpenAI Hits $500 billion Valuation, Surpasses SpaceX

The publication reported back in August that 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.

“Current and former OpenAI employees sold about $6.6 billion of stock to investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank Group Corp., Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price, a person familiar with the transaction said. That boosted the US company’s price tag well past its previous $300 billion level during a SoftBank-led financing round earlier this year.”

CNBC also reported that OpenAI was lining up the deal with investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price.

OpenAI authorized up to $10.3 billion in stock for sale, but only about two-thirds of that changed hands. People familiar with the discussions say that’s actually being read internally as a positive sign: employees and insiders holding on to their shares are signaling confidence that the company’s value will continue to climb beyond the already massive $500 billion mark.

The offer was open to employees and alumni who had held shares for more than two years, starting in early September. This isn’t the first time OpenAI has done something like this—last November, the company ran a $1.5 billion tender offer with SoftBank. But this latest deal dwarfs it, cementing the kind of investor appetite most startups can only dream about.

The timing is significant. Competition for top AI talent is reaching a fever pitch, with Meta reportedly dangling nine-figure pay packages to lure away researchers. Secondary sales like this one have become a tool for companies such as SpaceX, Stripe, and Databricks to reward employees without racing into the public markets. OpenAI is taking the same path—letting staff lock in some personal liquidity while the company stays independent and keeps scaling on its own terms.

With this deal, OpenAI is no longer just leading the AI boom—it’s sitting at the very top of the private company pyramid.