ChatGPT creator OpenAI has achieved a $500 billion valuation after selling shares worth $6.6 billion held by current and former employees. This makes OpenAI the world’s largest privately held startup, surpassing Elon Musk’s SpaceX valuation of $400 billion.
The investors included SoftBank Group, Thrive Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price. The sale comes just months after OpenAI’s previous $40 billion funding round that valued the startup at $300 billion, doubling its worth in under a year.
OpenAI's surge in valuation comes at a time when both users and revenue are experiencing similar growth. Though the company is yet to post a profit, it generated $4.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2025 alone. A 16% increase over full-year revenue in 2024. Their latest AI products, like the GPT-5 model and the new Sora 2 video AI model have helped expand OpenAI’s market presence significantly.
On the infrastructure side, OpenAI has committed $300 billion over the next five years to Oracle’s Cloud Services, while Nvidia has pledged a strategic investment of $100 billion to support their development.
