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OpenAI reportedly let employees sell up to $30m in shares each
OpenAI allowed employees to sell up to US$30 million in shares each in a secondary sale completed in October 2025, giving staff a way to cash out part of their equity, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
More than 600 current and former employees sold shares worth a combined US$6.6 billion in the deal, which valued OpenAI at about US$400 billion, and about 75 participants sold the maximum amount.
Secondary share sales are a common practice among large US startups to offer liquidity to employees and attract outside investors.
OpenAI offered eligible current and former employees the chance to sell their shares, with those holding equity for over two years able to participate until the end of September 2025.
🔗 Source: The Economic Times
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
The US$6.6 billion sale also reveals employee confidence
- Investors sought US$10.3 billion of stock, yet OpenAI employees sold US$6.6 billion, which left almost US$4 billion in demand unmet 1.
- That gap signals confidence inside the company, since workers at top private firms often keep part of their stake when they expect further gains 1.
- Employees held on a year after a funding round valued OpenAI at US$157 billion, which puts the roughly US$400 billion tender price far higher while still looking low to some staff 2.
Secondary sales help OpenAI keep AI talent
- Large secondary sales let staff turn equity into cash, which helps OpenAI keep people as Meta offers huge pay packages to pull away AI talent 3.
- The same approach has spread to cash-hungry private companies. That includes SpaceX, Elon Musk’s private rocket and satellite company, and Anthropic, an AI startup. They use tender offers to reward workers without an initial public offering (IPO) 1.
- An internal share market lets OpenAI wait on a public listing while giving employees liquidity, even as some investors call for the company to go public 4.
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