OpenAI, which is pursuing an initial public offering (IPO), conducted a tender offer to buy existing shares worth $7 billion (about 10 trillion won).
According to CNBC on the 10th (local time), OpenAI completed a tender offer transaction to buy back $7 billion worth of existing shares so current and former employees can cash out their equity more quickly. This tender offer was carried out with OpenAI purchasing the shares directly.
Unlisted corporations like OpenAI regularly conduct tender offers so employees and affiliates can cash out part of their equity. Previously, in Oct. last year, OpenAI carried out a $6.6 billion secondary share sale transaction, allowing employees to officially sell equity to outside investors to secure cash.
In this transaction, OpenAI's corporate value remained the same as the $852 billion valuation assessed when it raised funding in Mar., about 1.21 quadrillion won.
In Jun., OpenAI submitted a confidential filing for a listing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but it has not yet disclosed a specific listing schedule.
Initially, OpenAI aimed to list within the year, but the New York Times (NYT) reported that, in line with CEO Sam Altman's intention to raise the corporate value to $1 trillion before listing, it decided to push the listing to next year. Rival Anthropic confidentially submitted listing documents to the U.S. SEC a week earlier than OpenAI in Jun. and is expected to list as early as Oct.