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Tomohiro Ohsumi \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said that Meta has been poaching AI staff from the ChatGPT owner. <\/p>\n
OpenAI has reportedly finalized a secondary share sale that values the artificial intelligence company at $500 billion.<\/p>\n
At that level, OpenAI’s valuation overtakes that of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite-internet company.<\/p>\n
OpenAI has reportedly finalized a secondary share sale<\/a>\u00a0that values the\u00a0artificial intelligence<\/a> company at $500 billion, making the ChatGPT owner the world’s most valuable startup ever.<\/p>\n The share sale, which allows employees to cash out, comes just months after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that Meta Platforms (META)\u00a0was poaching the company’s AI staff<\/a> with signing bonuses as high as $100 million.<\/p>\n OpenAI’s sky-high valuation suggests investor demand for AI plays, which has helped propel the major U.S. equities indexes to record highs, remains strong.<\/p>\n According to Bloomberg, OpenAI’s current and former employees sold about $6.6 billion in stock in a deal that has has vaulted the company past Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX to become the world\u2019s largest startup. OpenAI had a $300 billion valuation<\/a> earlier this year.\u00a0Rocket company SpaceX is valued at $400 billion, Bloomberg said.<\/p>\n Investors that bought into the secondary share sale\u2014where investors buy from other investors rather than the company\u2014included Japan’s SoftBank, which put forth $30 billion in a funding round earlier this year. Thrive Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi\u2019s MGX, and T. Rowe Price also snapped up shares, the report said.<\/p>\n OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft (MSFT), is the latest of a string of AI startups to have seen valuations soar<\/a> as investors are eager for exposure ahead of potential market entries. Nvidia (NVDA) also said last month that it plans to invest up to $100 billion<\/a> in OpenAI to build out AI data centers. Nvidia, the chipmaker at the heart of the AI boom, has a market capitalization of well over $4 trillion, making it the world’s most valuable publicly listed company.<\/p>\n OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to an Investopedia request for comment.<\/p>\n