OpenAI buybacks approximately $7 billion in employee shares, valued at $852 billion

On August 11, according to Bloomberg News, people familiar with the matter revealed that OpenAI has completed an employee share repurchase transaction to help current and former employees sell approximately US$7 billion in company stock to prepare for a potential listing. Two people familiar with the matter said that OpenAI itself would buy back employee shares, rather than introducing external investors to buy them as before. The deal values OpenAI at $852 billion, which is in line with the company's most recent round of financing. OpenAI declined to comment. OpenAI has provided employees with share sales opportunities through investors such as ThriveCapital and SoftBank Group in the past. In March this year, the company raised US$122 billion from large technology companies and venture capital firms, and in June said it had secretly filed documents related to the initial public offering. At the same time, OpenAI continues to compete fiercely with Anthropic this year. Bloomberg said that Anthropic has recently gained momentum in the AI software field, with a valuation that has surpassed OpenAI and may go public earlier than OpenAI.