Sources: OpenAI is in talks to raise $300M+ from Thrive and Founders Fund in a tender offer, valuing the company at ~$29B, up from $14B in its 2021 tender offer
Tender offer at that valuation would make OpenAI one of the most valuable U.S. startups — Cheating With ChatGPT: Can an AI Chatbot Pass AP Lit?
Wall Street Journal
Context & Ripple Effects
This reported $29B tender offer is the opening valuation step in a longer OpenAI-Thrive relationship: Thrive later led an employee-liquidity deal at an $80B-plus valuation and was positioned to lead a subsequent $100B-plus funding round. The initial transaction matters because it establishes secondary-share liquidity, not just a paper valuation, as part of OpenAI’s capital strategy.
The pattern later widened beyond a single investor: OpenAI employees eventually sold shares to a consortium that included Thrive, SoftBank, MGX, Dragoneer and T. Rowe Price. That progression makes the proposed Thrive and Founders Fund tender an early sign of investor demand for access to a tightly held AI company.
First-order effects
A $300M-plus tender would give OpenAI’s existing shareholders a route to sell stock while setting a roughly $29B private-market benchmark, more than double its 2021 tender-offer valuation.
Thrive and Founders Fund would gain or expand exposure to OpenAI through a secondary transaction, tying their returns to the company’s private-market valuation rather than a public listing.
Second-order effects
The $29B price becomes a reference point for later OpenAI financings and employee-share sales; subsequent coverage shows Thrive using that role to lead an $80B-plus liquidity deal and pursue a $100B-plus round.
Secondary liquidity can help OpenAI retain employees and shareholders without requiring an IPO, while concentrating access to its shares among investors able to participate in private tenders.
Third-order effects
Repeated OpenAI tender offers point toward frontier AI labs using private secondary markets as a durable substitute for public-market liquidity, allowing valuations to reset as investor demand expands.
As more large investors join OpenAI share sales, ownership of leading AI labs may become increasingly concentrated among a small group of capital providers with access to private allocations.
The trend: Frontier AI companies are increasingly pairing primary fundraising with recurring secondary-share liquidity, concentrating ownership while postponing the need for public listings.
OpenAI follows Figma in being one of the few unicorns in tech whose valuation doubled since 2021. It's hard to beat companies that focus on providing value for businesses in hard times or bull markets. https://www.marketwatch.com/ ...
Google acquiring Deepmind in 2014 for ~$600M was such a steal in hindsight. Fun fact: Facebook was offering double but wouldn't agree to London office and certain conditions from Demis Hassabis. https://twitter.com/...
Scoop - ChatGPT creator OpenAI is in funding talks that would value it at $29 billion a high price to pay for a company that still generates little revenue, though bulls say chatgpt could one day challenge google search w/ @MilesKruppa https://www.wsj.com/...
Interesting tidbit on @jason's (who has me blocked) show where @rabois argued ChatGPT in Bing won't trounce Google because the long tail, obscure searches need training data where it probably won't have any https://www.wsj.com/...
@Microsoft Owned @OpenAI, The Creator Of AI Chatbot, ChatGPT To Be Valued At $29 Billion 🤯 The $300m tender offer would mean the company is valued at around 30x 2024 revenue, double their valuation in 2014. This would make it one of the most valuable startups in the world! https:…
Interesting but let's not forget this tender (which I doubt is $300M) is a distraction. It is nothing compared to Microsoft's investment and relationship—and Microsoft is the one that is going to have to keep pouring money in. https://www.wsj.com/...
No surprise that a company building technology that will fundamentally redefine what it means to be human is already valued at $29bn. SCOOP on @OpenAI. https://twitter.com/...
i'm sure AI has a bright future. but in the near term, how does this space not turn into bubble that attracts the worst people with worthless AI projects https://twitter.com/...