OpenAI lifts secondary share sale target to $10.3b

OpenAI will expand its secondary share sale to about US$10.3 billion, up from a previous US$6 billion target.

The sale values the AI company at US$500 billion, after a US$300 billion valuation from an earlier fundraising round this year.

OpenAI offered eligible current and former employees the chance to sell their shares, with those holding equity for over two years able to join until the end of September.

The transaction is expected to close in October.

Investors in the deal include SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Thrive Capital, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price.

🔗 Source: CNBC

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Secondary sales have become the new IPO as companies delay going public

OpenAI’s massive employee liquidity program reflects a broader shift in how high-growth companies manage shareholder expectations without going public.

The secondary sale market gained momentum after the 2008 financial crisis, when companies began staying private longer and traditional IPO timelines became less predictable 2. This created pressure from employees and early investors who needed liquidity but couldn’t access it through public markets.

Companies like SpaceX, Stripe, and Databricks now regularly offer these programs, turning secondary sales into a standard part of late-stage startup operations 1. The approach allows companies to maintain private status while providing periodic liquidity events for stakeholders.

Nasdaq Private Market alone has facilitated over $23 billion in returns to stakeholders through secondary transactions, demonstrating how this market has matured from a niche solution to essential infrastructure 3.

2️⃣ The scale signals unprecedented employee wealth concentration

The $10.3 billion available for employee sales represents an extraordinary concentration of wealth among OpenAI’s workforce.

Consider that OpenAI’s revenue jumped from just $3.5 million in 2020 to a projected $12.7 billion in 2025—a 3,628x increase over five years 4. This explosive growth means employees who joined early and held shares for the required two years are sitting on potentially life-changing equity stakes.

The $4.3 billion increase from the originally planned $6 billion suggests either more employees qualified than expected, or the company wanted to provide deeper liquidity to retain talent in an intensely competitive AI market.