OpenAI has crossed $500 billion, becoming the world’s most valuable privately held startup, surpassing Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The leap came through a $6.6 billion secondary share sale, according to Bloomberg and CNBC.
The deal, closed this week, let current and former employees sell shares to investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price. Bloomberg said this put OpenAI well above its $300 billion valuation earlier this year. The sale was approved for up to $10.3 billion, but only about two-thirds went through.
CNBC noted that the lower participation reflected employee confidence in OpenAI’s long-term prospects and strong investor demand despite the record valuation. MGX expressed satisfaction in its statement to CNBC, affirming its role as a “core partner to OpenAI.” The company also indicated its eagerness to strengthen its “strong relationship as a significant investor across multiple funding rounds.”
This marks OpenAI’s second major tender offer in less than a year, following a $1.5 billion deal with SoftBank in November. Such secondary transactions are increasingly common among high-profile startups like SpaceX, Stripe, and Databricks, offering employees liquidity while avoiding the scrutiny of a public listing.
The new valuation takes OpenAI ahead of SpaceX’s reported $456 billion valuation, placing it at the top of the global startup rankings. Other firms on the list include ByteDance at $220 billion and Anthropic at $183 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The milestone comes as OpenAI faces intensifying competition in the race for AI talent. Meta has reportedly offered nine-figure compensation packages to attract researchers, while OpenAI continues to invest in new infrastructure, including data centre projects with Oracle and SoftBank.
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