OpenAI lets employees cash out $7 billion as IPO plans remain uncertain
The tender offer values the AI company at $852 billion and gives current and former employees liquidity without requiring OpenAI to go public.
As it weighs a possible IPO, OpenAI has completed a deal that allowed current and former employees to sell about $7 billion worth of shares in the company, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter. Rather than bringing in outside investors, the AI company itself is buying the shares from employees.
The transaction valued OpenAI at $852 billion, roughly in line with the valuation from its most recent funding round. Private AI companies frequently conduct tender offers that allow employees and early investors to sell some of their holdings. In previous transactions, investors including Thrive Capital and SoftBank have purchased shares from employees.
In March, OpenAI raised $122 billion from major technology companies and venture capital firms. In June, the company announced that it had confidentially filed a prospectus ahead of a potential IPO. However, The New York Times reported later that month that OpenAI was considering delaying the offering amid volatility in technology stocks.
The latest tender offer could provide another indication that OpenAI is not in a rush to go public. Tender offers have become a common way for private companies to provide liquidity to employees without the complexities and market exposure associated with an IPO.
The company has also recently faced a wave of senior departures, the latest involving Chloé Bakalar ,its AI Ethics Lead, who left after less than a year in the role.
“We did not have our best last 12 months ever, which is mostly my fault, but we are about to have our best 12 months to date,” CEO Sam Altman wrote last month.
