OpenAI is being valued at $500 billion (approximately 695 trillion won) and is reportedly pushing for an insider equity sale, Bloomberg News reported on the 16th (local time). The scale of the sale is said to reach $6 billion (approximately 8.3 trillion won).
According to sources, this transaction will proceed by selling shares held by former and current OpenAI employees to major investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, and Dragonier Investment. Earlier, Bloomberg reported on the 5th that OpenAI was discussing insider equity sales at the same corporate valuation. Negotiations are in the early stages, and this sale is being pursued independently from the $40 billion financing led by SoftBank.
In March of this year, during a $40 billion financing round, OpenAI's corporate valuation was assessed at $300 billion, but it jumped to $500 billion in just a few months. If this valuation is confirmed, OpenAI will surpass Elon Musk's SpaceX to become the highest-valued startup in the world.
This equity sale is expected to provide employees with a cash-out opportunity to be used as a compensation tool in the competition for AI talent acquisition. Recently, Meta Platforms made headlines by offering an attractive salary package to attract talent from AI startups like OpenAI. Consequently, allowing employee equity sales for unlisted startups is seen as a crucial means to retain key personnel.
Existing investors will not be able to participate in this transaction, and only current and former employees who have worked for at least two years will be eligible. Negotiations are taking place shortly after OpenAI launched its latest model, GPT-5. OpenAI is said to have granted millions of dollars (billions of won) in special bonuses to around 1,000 research and development personnel in connection with the GPT-5 release.
Sam Altman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), stated through the company messenger on the 7th, "I appreciate the hard work of employees dedicated to building artificial general intelligence (AGI)" and noted, "We have been reviewing the compensation system in line with market trends, and we plan to increase compensation as the company grows."