$50 billion valuation feast! OpenAI to start employee stock trading to prevent poaching.

According to sources familiar with the matter, OpenAI is in early negotiations regarding a potential employee stock sale plan, with the company's valuation potentially reaching around $500 billion. This means that the value of this leading AI company will see a remarkable increase. Multiple anonymous sources have stated that the company is planning a second stock sale of several billion dollars. Existing investors, including Thrive Capital, have contacted OpenAI with interest in purchasing some employee-held shares. If the deal goes through, OpenAI's valuation will increase by approximately two-thirds compared to the previous SoftBank-led $40 billion financing, bringing it to about $300 billion and cementing its position as one of the largest private companies in the world. The latest developments follow last week's news that the company exceeded expectations in raising $8.3 billion from an investment consortium, which was part of the second batch of the $40 billion financing plan and was oversubscribed by about five times. Top startups in the United States often use stock options as an incentive for employees. Sources say that OpenAI, under the leadership of Sam Altman, is trying to take advantage of investor demand to provide employees with liquidity options that reflect the company's growth. In recent months, several researchers from OpenAI have been poached by Meta Platforms for high salaries, as the latter aims to build a "super-intelligence" AI team and has offered nine-figure compensation packages to talents from competitors like Apple. This employee stock sale may be a key move for OpenAI to retain talent. OpenAI, which has ushered in a new era of AI with ChatGPT, has recently released significant technological achievements such as two open models that can simulate human reasoning processes following the global attention garnered by China's DeepSeek open-source AI software. The company is also preparing to release GPT-5 to solidify its competitive edge. ChatGPT is expected to reach 700 million weekly active users this week (a significant increase from 500 million at the end of March), with daily message volume surpassing 3 billion. In May, the company announced a plan to acquire the AI device company co-founded by former Apple chief designer Jony Ive with nearly $65 billion in an all-stock deal, signaling a move into the hardware field. Despite its successes, OpenAI also faces numerous challenges. Currently, the company is engaged in separate negotiations about its future as a for-profit entity, a process that has been ongoing for several months. Microsoft has invested around $13.75 billion in OpenAI and has the right to use its intellectual property, but is also the largest opponent among investors of this ChatGPT developer. The issue lies in Microsoft's stake in this newly formed company. Subsequently, the negotiations have expanded to a renegotiation of the relationship between the two parties, with Microsoft attempting to avoid suddenly losing access to the technology of this startup before the current agreement ends in 2030.