OpenAI has officially become the most valuable private company in the world, with its valuation skyrocketing to a massive $500 billion. The company behind ChatGPT surpassed Elon Musk’s SpaceX after a recent sale of employee shares that generated a surge of new investment. In the deal, OpenAI employees sold $6.6 billion worth of their stock to major investors, including Softbank.
The huge demand for the shares pushed the company’s valuation up from $300 billion to its new, record-breaking high. This now puts OpenAI well ahead of SpaceX, which is valued at $400 billion, and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, at $220 billion.
The news comes as OpenAI is in the middle of a major structural change, transitioning into a “Public Benefit Corporation” (PBC). This new setup, which is being fiercely opposed in court by Elon Musk, will remove the limits on how much money investors can make. Musk, who was one of OpenAI’s founders, claims this move violates the company’s founding mission of building AI “for the benefit of humanity.”
But for OpenAI, the change is all about raising the massive amounts of money it needs to fund its ambitious plans. CEO Sam Altman has stated that he aims to invest trillions of dollars in building the data centers necessary to power the future of artificial intelligence. This new, record-high valuation is a clear sign that investors believe in that vision.
