OpenAI closes $7B share sale at $852B valuation ahead of IPO
What's the deal? OpenAI completed a secondary share sale of roughly $7 billion, letting current and former employees cash out stock at the company's $852 billion valuation, CNBCDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → confirmed on 10 August 2026. BloombergDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → first reported the figure.
Why now? The tender offer has been in the works since OpenAI closed its record $122 billion funding round in March 2026. It eases near-term liquidity pressure for staff ahead of a potential IPO.
What's the endgame? OpenAI confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June 2026, though it hasn't set a timeline for its debut. Secondary sales have become a core part of its pre-IPO playbook.
OpenAI completed a $6.6 billion tender offer at a $500 billion valuation in October 2025, and a $1.5 billion offer in 2024. Its valuation has since reached $852 billion.
By the numbers: At $7 billion, this ranks among the largest secondary rounds on record for its sector and geography, sitting in the top percentile of comparable deals.
The signal: OpenAI, which rose to prominence after launching ChatGPTDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in 2022, has become one of the fastest-growing private companies in the world. Rival Anthropic sits in a similar pre-IPO position, underscoring how the largest AI firms are staging repeated share sales to keep employees liquid while they weigh public listings.
Read more: CNBC
Image credit: OpenAI
