{"slug": "openai-lets-employees-cash-out-another-7-billion-in-stock", "title": "OpenAI lets employees cash out another $7 billion in stock", "summary": "OpenAI completed a stock buyback worth roughly $7 billion, allowing current and former employees to sell shares at the company's $852 billion valuation. The tender offer, initiated after OpenAI's $122 billion funding round in March, aims to provide liquidity ahead of a potential delayed IPO. This follows a similar $6.6 billion stock sale in October 2025, where about 75 employees cashed out up to $30 million each.", "body_md": "# OpenAI lets employees cash out another $7 billion in stock\n\n**OpenAI just minted a few more multimillionaires.** The company wrapped up a stock buyback worth roughly $7 billion, [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-10/openai-buys-back-7-billion-of-employee-shares-in-tender-offer?srnd=homepage-americas) reports. Current and former employees were able to sell shares at the company's current $852 billion valuation. The tender offer had been in the works since OpenAI's $122 billion funding round in March. The goal is to take pressure off employees waiting for liquidity ahead of a potential and [delayed IPO](https://the-decoder.com/altman-wont-go-public-for-less-than-1-trillion-so-openais-ipo-may-slip-to-2027/).\n\nBack in October 2025, OpenAI ran a similar [stock sale worth $6.6 billion](https://the-decoder.com/openais-internal-share-sale-minted-roughly-75-multimillionaires-who-each-cashed-out-the-30-million-cap/), with about 75 employees cashing out up to $30 million each. The growing wealth in the AI industry has side effects, too. In San Francisco, AI [salaries are driving rents](https://the-decoder.com/san-franciscos-ai-boom-is-pricing-out-six-figure-tech-workers-who-cant-find-rent-under-5000/) so high that even top earners struggle to find apartments. Wealthy families are sending their kids to [AI-focused private schools](https://the-decoder.com/ai-private-schools-sell-wealthy-us-families-on-personalized-learning-over-traditional-education/) that charge up to $75,000 a year.\n\n```\nAI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans\n\n\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive \"AI Radar\" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section.\t\t\t\t\n\n\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe now\n```\n\n[Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-10/openai-buys-back-7-billion-of-employee-shares-in-tender-offer?srnd=homepage-americas)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-lets-employees-cash-out-another-7-billion-in-stock", "canonical_source": "https://the-decoder.com/openai-lets-employees-cash-out-another-7-billion-in-stock/", "published_at": "2026-08-11 18:01:22+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-11 18:22:36.382535+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-startups", "ai-policy"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "Bloomberg"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-lets-employees-cash-out-another-7-billion-in-stock", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-lets-employees-cash-out-another-7-billion-in-stock.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-lets-employees-cash-out-another-7-billion-in-stock.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/openai-lets-employees-cash-out-another-7-billion-in-stock.jsonld"}}