By Juby Babu
(Reuters) -Current and former employees of OpenAI are looking to sell nearly $6 billion worth of the ChatGPT maker’s shares to investors including SoftBank Group and Thrive Capital, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
The potential deal would value the company at $500 billion, up from $300 billion currently, underscoring both OpenAI’s rapid gains in users and revenue, as well as the intense competition among artificial intelligence firms for talent.
SoftBank, Thrive and Dragoneer Investment Group did not immediately respond to requests for comment. All three investment firms are existing OpenAI investors.
Bloomberg News, which had earlier reported the development, said discussions are in early stages and the size of the sale could change.
The secondary share sale investment adds to SoftBank’s role in leading OpenAI’s $40 billion primary funding round.
Bolstered by its flagship product ChatGPT, OpenAI doubled its revenue in the first seven months of the year, reaching an annualized run rate of $12 billion, and is on track to reach $20 billion by the end of the year, Reuters reported earlier in August.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI has about 700 million weekly active users for its ChatGPT products, a surge from about 400 million in February.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Sriraj Kalluvila)
