- OpenAI reached a US$500 billion valuation after a deal in which over US$6.6 billion in stock was sold to investors, including SoftBank and Thrive Capital.
- The valuation jump is supported by rapid growth, with H1 2025 revenue, around US$4.3 billion, exceeding total 2024 revenue by 16%.
- The secondary sale provides liquidity for employees and is a retention tool, coming amid a legal dispute where OpenAI denies xAI’s lawsuit alleging staff poaching and trade secret theft.
OpenAI reached a US$500 billion valuation (AU$780 billion) after current and former employees sold about US$6.6 billion (AU$10.3 billion) of stock in a secondary deal, according to a person familiar with the transaction cited by Bloomberg.
The mark-up from roughly US$300 billion (AU$468 billion) underscores rapid user and revenue growth.
The buyer group included Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price, the person said. OpenAI authorised more than US$10 billion (AU$15.6+ billion) in secondary share sales, according to the same source.
The secondary transaction follows SoftBank’s earlier participation in OpenAI’s US$40 billion primary round (AU$62.4 billion). Revenue reached about US$4.3 billion (AU$6.71 billion) in the first half of 2025, roughly 16% above all of 2024, as per the Information reported earlier this week.
The sale lands amid an aggressive hiring contest for AI talent. For instance, Meta has reportedly offered nine-figure compensation packages to recruit top researchers. Large startups, including SpaceX, Stripe and Databricks, are also using secondary programs to give employees liquidity while staying private, a retention tool that rewards long-tenured staff without pursuing an IPO.
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Legal Battle with xAI Continues
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, as OpenAI is still in a legal battle against Elon Musk’s xAI.
The firm recently asked a federal judge on Thursday to dismiss xAI’s lawsuit alleging it poached staff to steal trade secrets tied to Grok, its chatbot embedded on X.
OpenAI denied the claims, calling them false and unsubstantiated, and characterises the case as part of Elon Musk’s “ongoing harassment” of the company.
xAI sued last week in federal court in San Francisco, alleging a “deeply troubling pattern” of hiring meant to gain access to Grok-related information, which it claims outclasses ChatGPT.
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