With the growing prominence of artificial intelligence in the global market, OpenAI’s valuation increase was an expected consequence. The potential increase in the company’s valuation to $500 billion is a recognition of its technological advancements and investor confidence in the company’s ability to transform its innovations into concrete revenue.
Billion-dollar bid in action and race for talent
ChatGPT maker OpenAI is in early-stage discussions about a stock sale that would allow employees to cash out and could value the company at about $500 billion, a source familiar with the matter said. That would represent an eye-popping bump-up from its current valuation of $300 billion, with the sale underscoring both OpenAI’s rapid gains in users and revenue as well as the intense competition among artificial intelligence firms to secure talented workers.
The transaction, which would come before a potential IPO, would allow current and former employees to sell several billion dollars worth of shares, said the source, who requested anonymity because the talks are private. Bolstered by its flagship product ChatGPT, OpenAI doubled its revenue in the first seven months of the year, reaching an annualized run rate of $12 billion, and is on track to reach $20 billion by year-end, the source added.
Major investors and rising revenues
The growing interest from international investors and the accelerating use of ChatGPT demonstrate how OpenAI is consolidating itself as one of the most sought-after assets in the new digital economy. The rapid increase in weekly active users and the consistent appreciation since the beginning of the year explain why companies like SoftBank are willing to invest billions.
Microsoft-backed MSFT.O OpenAI has about 700 million weekly active users for its ChatGPT products, a surge from about 400 million in February. The share sale talks come on the heels of OpenAI’s primary funding round announced earlier this year, which aims to raise $40 billion, led by Japan’s SoftBank Group 9984.T. SoftBank has until the end of the year to fund its $22.5 billion portion of the round, but the remainder has been subscribed at a valuation of $300 billion, the source said.
Talent appreciation as a market strategy
Tech giants are competing aggressively for AI talent with lucrative compensation packages. Meta META.O is notably investing billions in Scale AI to poach its 28-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang, so that he can lead its new super intelligence unit. Unlisted firms such as ByteDance, Databricks and Ramp have also used private share sales to help update a company’s valuation and reward long-term employees.
OpenAI’s move to allow employees to sell shares, besides being a cost-effective strategy, also serves as a way to retain talent in an environment where the most skilled professionals are sought after by industry giants. By updating the company’s valuation, OpenAI increases the perceived value of its stock-based compensation packages, making it more competitive with companies willing to pay a premium for AI leaders.
Existing investors in OpenAI, including Thrive Capital, are in discussions to participate in the employee share sale, the source said. Thrive Capital declined to comment. Bloomberg first reported the potential sale. OpenAI is working on a significant corporate restructuring that would move away from its current capped-profit model and open the door for an initial public offering in the future.
OpenAI’s path towards market transparency
The transition to a more flexible corporate model could help attract new institutional investors and provide greater clarity to the company’s governance. The participation of names like Thrive Capital in the secondary round reinforces this sense of confidence in the company’s future, which appears to be aligning its growth with more transparent governance and an eye toward the public market.
GCN.com/Reuters