Secondary sale could make the ChatGPT maker the world’s most valuable private tech company.
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OpenAI is currently in discussions with investors about a potential share sale that could value the company at $500 billion, positioning it to surpass Elon Musk’s SpaceX and become the world’s most valuable privately held tech firm.
The maker of ChatGPT is in the process of finalizing its latest funding round — a $40 billion investment led by SoftBank, valuing OpenAI at $300 billion. However, according to people familiar with the matter, OpenAI has already started discussions with investors — including Thrive Capital — at nearly double that valuation.
If this deal goes through, OpenAI would overtake SpaceX, which was recently valued at around $400 billion.
Sources say OpenAI is exploring the possibility of a secondary stock sale, which would allow current and former employees to cash out some of their shares. The final valuation and the total amount of stock to be sold will depend on investor demand and are not yet finalized.
According to one person with knowledge of the situation, this potential secondary sale could be significantly larger than the $1.5 billion share sale OpenAI conducted at the end of last year.
Both OpenAI and Thrive declined to comment on the matter.
These talks — first reported by Bloomberg — are the latest sign that the explosive interest in artificial intelligence is creating an unprecedented funding environment for companies developing and deploying this technology. Investors are betting heavily on promising AI startups, hoping they’ll become trillion-dollar businesses soon.
Since launching its ChatGPT chatbot at the end of 2022, OpenAI’s Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) — a key metric for subscription-based startups — has grown to $1.2 billion. According to someone familiar with OpenAI’s finances, the company projects this figure could reach $2 billion or more by the end of 2025.
Anthropic, as a close competitor, has moreover quadrupled its ARR this year to the tune of $400 million and is now in good talks of raising at least $5 billion at a valuation of $170 billion. Both companies are currently operating at a loss due to the enormous costs involved in training and running the most advanced AI models.