Few private companies can hand their workforce $7 billion in one go. OpenAI just did, buying back shares from current and former employees in a tender that values the ChatGPT maker at $852 billion, according to Bloomberg.
The figure matches the mark set in March, when OpenAI closed a record $122 billion financing. What makes the deal unusual is the buyer: the company itself purchased the stock rather than tapping outside investors, so the transaction adds no fresh capital to its war chest.
For staff, it is a liquidity event years in the making. OpenAI has stayed private through explosive growth, and the buyback gives employees a way to turn paper wealth into cash without heading for the exits to cash out elsewhere. Retention, not fundraising, is the point.
The timing matters as OpenAI edges toward public markets. It filed confidentially with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, setting the stage for what could be one of the largest tech IPOs in history. A tender offer of this size hints that a debut may not land imminently, and chief executive Sam Altman has been candid that the company wants its next 12 months to be its best yet before courting public investors.
The payout also sharpens the race with rival Anthropic, which was reportedly profitable earlier this year and has its own IPO ambitions. Both labs are fighting to keep talent and to arrive at a listing with the strongest possible financial story.
Wall Street is watching closely. An $852 billion valuation on a staff share sale gives investors another data point on how the market prices frontier AI, even before any official offering documents surface.
