OpenAI Valued at $500 Billion After Secondary Stock Sale, Plans to Launch Advanced AI Model GPT-5 Amid User Complaints

Tech firm OpenAI is poised to offload approximately $6 billion worth of shares as part of a secondary offering, potentially valuing the company at an estimated $500 billion. The sale will involve current and former employees unloading their stocks to prominent investors such as SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, and Thrive Capital.

Discussions surrounding this transaction are still in preliminary stages, with details subject to change. Anonymous sources familiar with the negotiations have confirmed these developments to various media outlets.

Bloomberg first reported on these discussions, noting that Thrive Capital could spearhead the round, as previously reported by other news outlets. SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, and Thrive Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding this development.

OpenAI’s astronomical valuation can be attributed to the launch of its generative AI chatbot ChatGPT towards the end of 2022. The company recently announced a $40 billion funding round in March, placing its value at an impressive $300 billion – the largest ever recorded for a private technology firm. This was followed by a fresh capital injection of $8.3 billion earlier this month, tied to the same funding round.

Last week, OpenAI unveiled GPT-5, its most sophisticated and advanced large-scale AI model to date. The company claims that GPT-5 is not only smarter and faster but also significantly more useful across various domains such as writing, coding, and healthcare. However, the initial rollout has faced some challenges, with users expressing concerns over losing access to OpenAI’s previous models.

In response to these issues, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, acknowledged in a post on X that they may have underestimated the importance of certain features in GPT-4o for some users, despite GPT-5 performing better overall.