On October 2, 2025, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, made history by completing a massive secondary share sale valued at $6.6 billion, catapulting its overall valuation to a staggering $500 billion. This milestone not only made OpenAI the world’s most valuable private, venture-backed company, but it also pushed the AI pioneer ahead of SpaceX, which had previously held the crown with a $400 billion valuation after its own secondary share sale this summer, according to Bloomberg and Reuters.
The secondary share sale, as reported by CNBC and Reuters, was designed to give current and former OpenAI employees the opportunity to cash out some of their equity. In total, about $6.6 billion worth of stock changed hands, though the company had originally authorized up to $10.3 billion for sale—a sign, some say, of employee confidence in OpenAI’s future prospects. The transaction was open only to those who had held shares for at least two years, a policy that rewarded long-term commitment while maintaining a sense of stability within the organization.
The consortium of investors who snapped up the shares reads like a who’s who of global finance and tech: Thrive Capital, SoftBank Group Corp., Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price all participated in the deal. Notably, Thrive Capital had previously backed a $6.5 billion equity investment in OpenAI last September, while SoftBank’s involvement built on its headline-making $40 billion investment in April 2025—a deal that, at the time, valued OpenAI at $300 billion.
This jump from a $300 billion valuation earlier in the year to $500 billion now is nothing short of remarkable. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters both highlighted that the leap underscores OpenAI’s rapid growth in both user base and revenue. According to The Information, OpenAI generated $4.3 billion in sales during the first half of 2025, already surpassing its entire revenue for 2024 by about 16%. The company now forecasts $13 billion in revenue for the full year, though it still operates at a net loss as it pours resources into infrastructure and product development.
Secondary share sales like this one don’t bring new capital directly into a company, but they do have significant ripple effects. As eWeek and SiliconANGLE pointed out, a higher valuation means OpenAI can use its stock as a powerful bargaining chip in acquisitions—fewer shares need to be issued to finance deals, allowing the company to retain more ownership while expanding aggressively. Indeed, OpenAI has recently acquired Statsig Inc., a software maker specializing in cloud-based application development tools, in a $1.1 billion all-stock transaction. Earlier, it snapped up io Products Inc., a consumer electronics startup led by former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion in shares.
The influx of investment and sky-high valuation reflect investor confidence, but they also highlight the immense costs OpenAI faces as it races to stay ahead in the AI arms race. According to SiliconANGLE and eWeek, a large chunk of these resources is being funneled into the Stargate initiative—a $500 billion project to build a sprawling network of AI data centers across the United States, boasting over 10 gigawatts of compute capacity. Backers of Stargate include SoftBank and Abu Dhabi’s MGX, both of whom participated in the recent share sale.
The company’s ambitions don’t stop at U.S. borders. Since May 2025, OpenAI has announced plans to open data centers in Norway, the United Arab Emirates, and the U.K., and just this week, it revealed that it’s exploring new projects in Korea. The Korean announcement was made alongside partnerships with Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., the world’s two largest suppliers of memory chips. OpenAI reportedly plans to purchase up to 900,000 wafers per month from these suppliers—an astonishing 40% of the world’s supply. The company expects to spend $350 billion on server rentals through 2030, a figure that illustrates the enormous scale of its operations and the challenges it faces in achieving profitability in the near to mid-term.
Meanwhile, OpenAI continues to roll out new consumer products, such as Sora 2, a video generator, and Pulse, a daily report feature within the ChatGPT app that aims to replace both fitness and organizational apps while drawing users deeper into the AI ecosystem. These launches are part of a broader push to solidify OpenAI’s presence in both the consumer and enterprise markets, even as its corporate structure remains in flux. According to eWeek, there are ongoing court debates about a potential shift to a for-profit model—a move that has sparked opposition from some quarters, reflecting concerns about governance and mission drift.
The competitive landscape is heating up as well. Reuters noted that tech giants like Meta are investing billions in AI startups such as Scale AI and have even lured away top talent, like 28-year-old CEO Alexandr Wang, to lead new super intelligence units. With such fierce competition for both talent and technological breakthroughs, OpenAI’s ability to attract and retain the best minds is more crucial than ever.
Despite the optimism surrounding the company’s growth and investor enthusiasm, some analysts are starting to wonder whether the exponential trajectory of generative AI can be sustained. The massive investments in infrastructure, the arms race for talent, and the looming questions about profitability all cast a long shadow over OpenAI’s otherwise glowing financials. As Megan Crouse of eWeek put it, "the massive build-outs OpenAI is undertaking under the umbrella of the Stargate project, along with the deals it is making to acquire both more customers and infrastructure, have led some analysts to question whether generative AI’s upward trajectory might soon level off."
Still, for now, OpenAI stands atop the private tech world, flush with investment and ambition. Its $500 billion valuation is a testament to the transformative power of artificial intelligence—and the belief, shared by investors and employees alike, that the company is only just getting started.
