Overview

• Current and former employees sold roughly $6.6 billion of shares in a secondary transaction that implies a $500 billion valuation, according to multiple reports citing people familiar.
• Buyers included Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price, and the parties did not immediately comment.
• Only about two-thirds of the more than $10 billion in authorized shares changed hands, indicating strong investor demand and a desire by many employees to hold their stakes.
• The deal makes OpenAI the most valuable private startup, surpassing SpaceX’s latest reported valuation of about $400–456 billion.
• Revenue momentum is fueling investor interest, with The Information reporting about $4.3 billion in the first half of 2025 as the company uses liquidity events to help retain talent against rich offers from rivals such as Meta.