Openai employees to sell $ 6 billion in shafts in SoftBank, other investors

The talks are early and the size of the sale of shares could still change, said the people, who asked not to be identified to discuss private information. The investment in secondary stocks is in addition to SoftBank’s commitment to lead the financing cycle of $ 40 billion in Openai, which values the company at 300 billion dollars, according to another person familiar with the agreement. This tour remains in progress, Openai recently obtaining $ 8.3 billion from an investor union.

The representatives of Dragoneer and Thrive did not respond to requests for comments. Openai and SoftBank spokesperson refused to comment. The three companies are existing OPENAI funds.

The sale of secondary actions, which was reported for the first time by Bloomberg, will give the employees of Openai a chance to obtain a richness in cash in the midst of a talent war with high issues in the artificial intelligence industry. Companies like Meta Platforms Inc. offer massive wages to recruit AI talents in Openai and other startups. This year, several OpenAi employees went out for Meta, including Shengjia Zhao, Co-creator of Chatgpt.

Allowing employees to sell shares is an important tool for startups trying to keep the best talents, without obliging the company to make themselves public or to be acquired. In some cases, the first investors also use these offers to sell their challenges, although OpenAi investors are not eligible to do so in this turn, according to a person familiar with the issue. Current and former employees who have spent at least two years in the company can participate.

With its participation in the sale of actions, as well as its previous commitments, SoftBank makes a pivotal bet on the success of Openai. In addition to these transactions, the Japanese conglomerate led by Masayoshi SA has recently closed a separate purchase of $ 1 billion in OpenAi employee shares to an evaluation of $ 300 billion, according to a person familiar with the problem. Negotiations for this agreement began before the start of the $ 500 billion secondary assessment, they said.

The evaluation of $ 500 billion would make the most precious startup in the world, exceeding SpaceX from Elon Musk. The company expects revenues to be tripled this year at $ 12.7 billion, compared to $ 3.7 billion in 2024, Bloomberg reported. And secondary agreement are presented on the outlet of its highly anticipated GPT-5 model.

This week, Openai chief Sam Altman spoke with a group of journalists and shared his business vision, including that she wants to spend billions of dollars on the infrastructure required to manage AI services in “a not very distant future”.

“You should expect a group of economists to twist your hands and say:” It’s so crazy, it’s so reckless “, and whatever,” said Altman. “And we will say,” What do you know? ” Let us do our thing. »»