OpenAI Advances New Round of Employee Buyouts with $730 Billion Valuation
After submitting its IPO draft, OpenAI plans a new round of employee buyouts with a pre-IPO valuation of $730 billion.
Over the past five years, OpenAI has provided over $9 billion in cash-out opportunities through at least eight buyouts, while Anthropic has had a lower frequency of buybacks but has also reached several billion dollars in scale. Together, the two companies have allowed employees and early investors to cash out approximately $14 billion.
In market mechanisms, AI startup employees are accelerating liquidity release through official buyouts, shifting funds from long-term locked equity to diversified asset allocation. Leading companies maintaining high valuation in private status benefit, while those constrained in the secondary market face pressure.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
OpenAI has initiated multiple buyouts since its establishment, providing liquidity options for employees during several rounds of financing from 2023 to 2025, similar to Anthropic's approach of controlling secondary transactions to combat unauthorized SPVs and maintain valuation stability and compliance.
In terms of capital pathways, OpenAI is mobilizing high-valuation financing resources to arrange buybacks for employees, while investors like SoftBank supplement purchases through private transactions, motivated by alleviating tax pressures on vested equity and retaining core talent, continuing to maintain private status to focus on AGI development until the timing for an IPO is ripe.
Similar cases include long-term private unicorns like SpaceX and Stripe addressing employee liquidity through regular buyouts, as well as multiple secondary transactions before the eventual IPO of companies like Uber. OpenAI is currently in a phase of deepening liquidity management as AI leading companies transition from high-valuation private status to IPO.
Essentially, this represents capital concentration: the buyout mechanism combines the release of employee equity value through official channels with the maintenance of company control, driving capital from early investors and employees towards continuously high-valuation platforms, and accelerating talent retention and long-term resource redistribution in the AI industry.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
High private valuation is not a delay, but a leverage turning employee liquidity into company control. The more official the cash-out window, the more stable talent retention becomes, while illegal secondary transactions are first regulated out. The greater the tax pressure on vested equity, the more official buyouts become a two-way pricing switch for capital and talent.