OpenAI’s Share Sale Crowns a $500 Billion Valuation as SoftBank, Thrive Lead the Bid

What the $500B print means for OpenAI and private markets

OpenAI completed a secondary share sale that values the company at $500 billion, according to multiple reports, with current and former employees selling around $6.6 billion of stock to investors including SoftBank, Thrive Capital, Dragoneer, Abu Dhabi’s MGX and T. Rowe Price. The tender lifts OpenAI past SpaceX to become the world’s most valuable startup.

How the deal came together, and who bought

The transaction formalizes a months-long process to provide employee liquidity at a fixed mark. CNBC/FT-linked reporting lists Thrive Capital and SoftBank among the anchor buyers, alongside crossover funds and Gulf capital. Employees were permitted to sell up to $10 billion; roughly two-thirds was taken, signaling internal confidence in upside.

Why secondary, not primary, matters here

Because this was a secondary (no new shares issued), OpenAI’s cash balance and runway are unchanged, but the valuation signal is powerful: a broad group of public-market style investors underwrote exposure at a level typically associated with mature megacaps. That narrows the gap between private marks and public comps, while keeping governance and disclosure in private-company territory.

The numbers behind the mark

OpenAI’s revenue trajectory has accelerated in 2025, with Reuters and others citing multi-billion-dollar first-half revenue and double-digit ARR run-rates; FT adds that annualized revenue has moved into the low-teens billions, with upside into year-end. These data points help explain why buyers accepted a $500 billion valuation on a secondary share sale rather than demanding a discount.

Competitive and capital-market context

The print lands amid a scramble for AI compute, model deployment, and talent. A rising secondary mark can aid retention (options more valuable) and recruiting (credible liquidity path). For the late-stage private market, a $500B cross, set by SoftBank, Thrive Capital and peers, becomes a pricing reference for follow-on tenders around leading AI platforms, while sharpening valuation debates for second-tier names.

What it means for existing strategic partners

The valuation does not alter OpenAI’s strategic supply agreements, but it strengthens bargaining leverage with clouds, GPU providers and data-center partners, where multiyear offtake and power procurement shape delivery. Supplier ecosystems may view the mark as support for continued capacity allocations, even as industry pricing for inference and context continues to fall.

Risks that the $500B tag doesn’t erase

• Execution risk: Shipping reliable products at scale while controlling serving cost as context windows and usage grow.
• Input risk: Dependence on GPU supply and grid power; delays in facilities or hardware generations can compress margins.
• Policy & legal overhang: Antitrust, privacy and IP claims can reshape product roadmaps and monetization.
• Market cyclicality: Secondary marks can reprice quickly if growth cools or if private-to-public windows shut.

Read-throughs for public markets

• Semis & supply chain: Multi-year AI capex visibility is supportive for accelerators, HBM memory, optical interconnects and liquid-cooling vendors as leaders like OpenAI scale.
• Clouds & data-center REITs: A durable demand signal keeps power-rich campuses and long-lead electrical gear (transformers, switchgear) in focus.
• Software & apps: As model/API prices trend down, application-layer players with pricing power on outcomes (not tokens) could expand margins.

Why employees sold, and why many didn’t

Liquidity events diversify concentrated personal wealth and refresh equity comp cycles. That only ~$6.6B of a $10B window cleared implies many holders preferred to stay long at the new mark; for investors, that’s a read on insider expectations as well as a constraint on float that can support future secondary offering dynamics.

What to watch next

• Follow-on tenders: Whether additional windows open at or above $500B, and how allocation shifts among SoftBank, Thrive Capital and crossovers.
• Disclosures: More granular ARR and unit-economics detail in investor materials or credit docs that triangulate growth vs. compute cost.
• Ecosystem signals: Supplier bookings, campus power SLAs, and any pre-IPO governance moves that hint at future listing timelines.