OpenAI lets employees cash out another $7 billion in stock

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.

OpenAI lets employees cash out another $7 billion in stock 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/ . Back 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. AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans Subscribe 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. Subscribe now Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-10/openai-buys-back-7-billion-of-employee-shares-in-tender-offer?srnd=homepage-americas