SoftBank and other existing investors to participate in secondary sale
Company valuation could soar to $500 billion if deal closes
Poised to become the world’s most valuable unlisted tech firm

OpenAI is reportedly in talks to offload insider-held shares in a transaction that would value the company at $500 billion, positioning it as the world’s most valuable privately held technology firm. The move is designed to provide liquidity for employees and stave off talent attrition, as rivals like Meta dangle massive compensation packages to lure artificial intelligence (AI) experts.

$6 Billion Insider Sale in the Works

According to Bloomberg on the 17th (local time), OpenAI is seeking to arrange a secondary share sale worth approximately $6 billion. Based on the prospective $500 billion valuation, OpenAI would leapfrog Elon Musk’s SpaceX to claim the top spot globally among privately held startups.

The transaction would involve current and former employees selling equity to major investors including SoftBank, Thrive Capital, and Dragoneer Investment. Earlier this month, Bloomberg also reported that OpenAI was considering a similar secondary sale at the same valuation. Negotiations remain at an early stage, and the deal is being pursued independently of SoftBank’s separate $40 billion capital-raising initiative. During that March fundraising, OpenAI had been valued at $300 billion, meaning its worth has surged by two-thirds in just a matter of months.

This share sale would allow employees with more than two years of tenure to cash out without waiting for an IPO or merger, effectively transforming secondary transactions into a retention tool in the escalating battle for AI talent. “We have continuously revisited our compensation framework in line with market dynamics, and as the company grows, rewards will grow accordingly,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told staff on August 7 via an internal message.

Son Bets Big on “Superintelligence Within a Decade”

Industry observers widely expect SoftBank to move aggressively to secure a significant portion of the offering. SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son has long signaled strong interest in expanding his stake in OpenAI, tying it to his bold vision of realizing artificial superintelligence (ASI) within ten years.

At SoftBank’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Tokyo on June 27, Son declared, “I am betting all in on the world of ASI. We will achieve ASI within about a decade and make SoftBank the world’s leading platform in this field.” He also stressed that the ASI era would be defined by a winner-takes-all dynamic.

SoftBank’s AI strategy is built on two pillars. The first centers on AI services, anchored by U.K. chip designer Arm and OpenAI. Son has already introduced “Cristal Intelligence,” a tailored AI assistant for Japanese corporations that leverages internal data—from emails to meeting notes—to drive decision-making and efficiency. “The gap will be as stark as that between nations with electricity and those without,” Son asserted, noting that AI will eventually understand every facet of a business and make optimized decisions on its behalf.

The second pillar is large-scale AI infrastructure. SoftBank, alongside OpenAI, is spearheading the $500 billion “Stargate Project,” which aims to build data centers and supporting energy infrastructure across the United States to serve as the backbone of the AI economy. “Just as the automobile industry cannot flourish without roads, AI competitiveness hinges on robust infrastructure,” Son emphasized.

Stargate Project Stalling Just Months After Launch

Yet the Stargate Project faces daunting hurdles. Building out massive data centers across the U.S. requires both vast capital and advanced semiconductors, while SoftBank is also said to be quietly weighing ventures in chip design, manufacturing, and AI-powered robotics. The sheer scale of the $500 billion investment has made financing a formidable obstacle.

In January, OpenAI and SoftBank jointly pledged at the White House to immediately deploy $100 billion, with a longer-term goal of $500 billion by 2029 to construct 10 gigawatts of AI data centers nationwide and generate 100,000 jobs. Six months on, however, tangible progress has been minimal. The ambitious blueprint has been pared back to a far more modest target: completing a single small-scale data center in Ohio by year’s end.

The project’s lack of traction is reverberating through U.S. AI strategy. The Trump administration has cast AI infrastructure expansion as a national imperative in countering China, but the faltering execution of its most high-profile public-private partnership exposes a gap between policy ambitions and operational reality. Job creation and technological self-reliance goals are also likely to slip. Against this backdrop, speculation is mounting that SoftBank’s participation in OpenAI’s upcoming share sale is not only a strategic equity play but also a way to galvanize investor confidence and secure financing for the sprawling Stargate initiative.