SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has reached a $500 billion valuation following a secondary share sale involving employees and early backers, according to a source familiar with the deal.
The transaction saw current and former staff sell about $6.6 billion worth of stock to investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price.
The company had authorized sales of more than $10 billion in stock on the secondary market.
The new valuation marks a sharp rise from OpenAI’s previous $300 billion figure, underscoring the company’s rapid revenue and user growth.
OpenAI generated an estimated $4.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2025, already surpassing last year’s full-year earnings by 16%, according to The Information.
SoftBank’s participation builds on its earlier stake in OpenAI’s $40 billion primary funding round. The Japanese investor has been scaling its bets on AI amid intensifying global competition for talent.
The deal comes as technology giants increase spending to secure artificial intelligence expertise. Meta recently poached Alexandr Wang, the 28-year-old founder of Scale AI, to lead its new superintelligence unit.
