OpenAI, the private AI firm behind ChatGPT, has given some of its staff a large cash win before the company even goes public.
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New trading tool for NVDA bearsAccording to a Wall Street Journal report, more than 600 current and former OpenAI staff sold shares last October, raising a total of $6.6 billion. Around 75 of them sold the full amount allowed, which was $30 million each. The sale came after many staff had to wait two years before they could cash out their shares.
The move shows how fast wealth is being made in the AI race. In past tech booms, startup staff often had to wait for an initial public offering before they could sell stock. This time, OpenAI is still private, yet many staff have already turned paper gains into cash.
A New Kind of Tech Payday
The WSJ report said OpenAI had set a prior sale cap of $10 million per worker, but later raised it to $30 million due to strong investor demand. The report did not name the buyers, only stating that the sale took place through a tender offer, in which staff can sell shares to outside investors.
As OpenAI is becoming one of the most prized private tech firms in the world, the report stated that staff who received shares when OpenAI first issued them seven years ago have seen the value of those shares rise more than 100-fold. By contrast, the Nasdaq (NDAQ) has roughly tripled over the same span.
Meanwhile, the AI talent war is also lifting pay. The report noted that OpenAI offers yearly salaries above $500,000 for some tech roles, while Meta Platforms (META) has offered pay deals as high as $300 million to some top AI staff.
For investors, the key point is clear. The AI boom is not only lifting large public names such as Meta, Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Nvidia (NVDA). It is also creating huge wealth inside private firms that may shape some of the largest public listings in tech history.
We used the TipRanks Comparison Tool to compare major public AI names. The chart gives investors a quick look at each stock’s valuation, market cap, dividend yield, and analyst consensus, while also showing how OpenAI’s private-market surge fits into the broader AI investment story.
