OpenAI Is Letting Individuals Invest in Its $852 Billion Valuation—Here’s How |
OpenAI Is Letting Individuals Invest in Its $852 Billion Valuation—Here’s How
For the first time, OpenAI is expanding beyond institutional backers and letting individuals buy in.
BY LEILA SHERIDAN, NEWS WRITER
Sam Altman. Illustration: Inc.; Photos: Getty Images; Adobe Stock
For the first time, OpenAI is welcoming individual investors.
The company announced it has raised more than $3 billion from individual investors by expanding participation through bank channels, marking a significant shift for a company that has largely remained backed by institutional capital.
Investor expansion doesn’t end there, though. OpenAI will now be included in several exchange-traded funds managed by ARK Invest, further widening access to its equity.
“We are really trying to take to heart our mission, which is AGI for the benefit of humanity and thinking about access,” OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar told Axios. “Not just access to the technology, but also access to the economic upside that it’s driving.”
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That shift comes as OpenAI’s valuation and influence continues to ascend rapidly. The company recently closed a funding round totaling $122 billion in committed capital, bringing its post-money valuation to $852 billion, according to Axios. A large portion of that backing comes from major tech and investment players, including earlier commitments totaling $110 billion from Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank.
Some of that capital is already being deployed, while additional tranches remain conditional. Amazon’s remaining $35 billion investment, for example, is tied to milestones including a potential IPO by 2028. Nvidia and SoftBank have each committed to additional $10 billion installments scheduled later this year, underscoring both the scale of the bet and the expectations tied to OpenAI’s continued growth.
Those expectations are being fueled by unusually rapid adoption and monetization. In a company statement, OpenAI said it “was the fastest technology platform to reach 10 million users, the fastest to 100 million users, and soon the fastest to 1 billion weekly active users.”