By In a bold demonstration of AI’s soaring market momentum, OpenAI has soared to a $500 billion valuation after completing a secondary share sale worth $6.6 billion involving current and past employees.
That’s a dramatic leap from earlier in 2025, when a primary funding round placed the company at about $300 billion.
The share buyers included major institutional players—Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer, MGX, and T. Rowe Price—underscoring deep appetite for exposure to OpenAI’s long-term potential.
OpenAI had authorized over $10 billion in secondary share capacity, but just under two-thirds of that was sold. Many employees refrained from selling, which some interpret as optimism about the company’s growth path.
On the performance front, the AI pioneer posted $4.3B in revenue in H1 2025, up 16% year-over-year, marking significant scaling. However, R&D and compute costs remain steep—OpenAI reported a $2.5B burn in the period—but its liquidity cushion remains robust.
The timing of this deal is notable: OpenAI’s valuation now outpaces many unicorns and places it among the most valuable private firms globally.
Still, critics warn of valuation misalignments. Some tech market watchers caution that this sort of aggressive multiple expansion could signal speculative excess in AI equities.
Looking ahead, the focus will shift to OpenAI’s execution: margin improvement, retention of top talent, compute scaling strategy, and ability to monetize at scale beyond core subscription models.