Home / Business and Economy / OpenAI Employees Seek to Sell $6B in Shares, Valuing Firm at $500B
OpenAI Employees Seek to Sell $6B in Shares, Valuing Firm at $500B
15 Aug
Summary
- OpenAI employees looking to sell $6B in shares
- Potential deal would value company at $500B
- Rapid growth in users and revenue for ChatGPT
As of August 16, 2025, current and former employees of OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT AI assistant, are looking to sell nearly $6 billion worth of the company's shares to investors. The potential deal would value OpenAI at $500 billion, a significant increase from its current valuation of $300 billion.
This move underscores the rapid growth and success of OpenAI in the past year. The company's flagship product, ChatGPT, has seen a surge in users, reaching an estimated 700 million weekly active users as of August 2025, up from around 400 million in February. Additionally, OpenAI's revenue has more than doubled in the first seven months of 2025, reaching an annualized run rate of $12 billion and is on track to reach $20 billion by the end of the year.
The secondary share sale investment adds to the role of SoftBank, one of the existing OpenAI investors, in leading the company's $40 billion primary funding round. Other investors involved in the potential deal include Thrive Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group, all of whom are existing OpenAI backers.
