OpenAI is now valued at $500 billion after finishing a major share sale that let employees and some early investors sell part of their holdings. In this deal, around $6.6 billion worth of shares were bought by big investment firms, including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, and T. Rowe Price, first reported by Bloomberg. The company had given approval for as much as $10 billion in stock to be sold, but the final amount ended up smaller because many employees chose to keep their shares.
This new valuation marks a big rise for the ChatGPT maker. Earlier this year, the company was valued at around $300 billion, but now its worth has grown to half a trillion dollars. This huge jump makes the Sam Altman-led company the most valuable startup in the world at present. And now the company has even surpassed Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, which is estimated to be worth about $400 billion.
A main reason investors are giving OpenAI such a high valuation is its fast-growing business. In the first half of 2025, the company reportedly earned around $4.3 billion, already 16% more than its total revenue for the entire previous year (2024). However, the company’s spending remained extremely high, with a cash burn of $2.5 billion during the same period. But despite the high level of spending, the ChatGPT maker reportedly held $17.5 billion in cash and marketable securities as of June 2025. In June 2025, OpenAI reported that its annual recurring revenue had risen to $10 billion, up from $5.5 billion in December 2024. Even the AI firm is said to be targeting $125 billion in revenue by 2029.
The timing also becomes notable as just last week, Nvidia announced plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI. Recently, the AI trendsetter also entered into a major partnership with Oracle, signing a $300 billion cloud computing deal set to run over the next five years. The AI giant also entered the social media space by launching a new iOS app called ‘Sora’, which allows users to create and share AI-generated videos.
It is worth noting that such a massive valuation does not mean everything is going smoothly for OpenAI. The company continues to face both financial and legal challenges. For example, its $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro plan, despite being popular, is reportedly losing money due to higher-than-expected user engagement. At the same time, OpenAI is dealing with several high-profile lawsuits. Elon Musk’s xAI filed a case alleging trade secret theft, and Musk has also previously challenged OpenAI over its business practices. Adding to these pressures, in August 2025, the parents of a teenager who tragically took his own life filed a lawsuit claiming that ChatGPT played a role in his death.
The Tech Portal is published by Blue Box Media Private Limited. Our investors have no influence over our reporting. Read our full Ownership and Funding Disclosure →
