OpenAI wrapped up a secondary share sale that saw $6.6 billion worth of stock sold as the firm achieves a valuation of $500 billion, making the company the biggest startup, crossing Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which was measured close to $400 billion.
The share deal compensates former and current employees by allowing them to sell company stock at lucrative prices due to the company’s sky-high valuation.
Bloomberg was the first to report on the scene.
The update comes as tech firms look for the best talent they can find in the sector, offering lucrative pay packages.
In August, OpenAI was reportedly looking to sell shares with participating investors such as Thrive Capital, Softbank, and others.
Currently, the majority of established AI firms and data-enterprise firms, such as Databricks, MistralAI, and xAI, are not pursuing IPOs, preferring to remain private and grow in size with successive funding rounds lending the boost in valuation.
OpenAI continues to experiment with its technology, rolling out multiple features for users to try out, the latest being Sora 2.