Just in time for the holidays, around 400 current and former OpenAI employees are set to receive multi-million dollar payouts through a special stock sale arranged by the privately held San Francisco company and Japan’s SoftBank Group.
The tender offer enables select OpenAI employees and ex-staff to sell their stock to SoftBank at $210 per share, according to a source familiar with the matter. This deal provides insiders with a chance to cash out some of their equity in the AI company, which has seen its valuation double to $157 billion in the past year.
SoftBank plans to buy up to $1.6 billion worth of stock from eligible shareholders, who must have received restricted stock units more than two years ago to participate, the source said. Eligible OpenAI shareholders have until December 24 to decide whether and how much to sell. SoftBank’s tender offer was first reported by CNBC in November, but the number of eligible participants and shares has only been revealed now. OpenAI currently employs over 2,000 people.
For eligible participants, the deal could serve as a lucrative holiday bonus. Each person can sell up to $10 million worth of vested stock. Current OpenAI employees will have priority over former employees if the deal is oversubscribed, according to the source. All eligible current employees can cash out the full $10 million, but depending on participation, former employees may not be able to sell the entire $10 million in equity. However, they are guaranteed to sell at least $2 million of stock, as per OpenAI’s guidelines.
The source revealed that OpenAI has stated the total stock available for sale is worth $2 billion. Since SoftBank has committed to buying $1.6 billion, up to $400 million worth of stock may not have a buyer.
For SoftBank, the deal presents an opportunity to increase its stake in OpenAI, after reportedly investing $500 million in the company’s $6.6 billion funding round in October, led by Thrive Ventures. The current tender offer price of $210 per share reflects OpenAI’s $157 billion valuation from that October round.
SoftBank, led by billionaire founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, is making significant investments in the AI sector. Just yesterday, Son and President-elect Donald Trump announced plans for SoftBank Group to invest $100 billion in AI infrastructure projects in the U.S. over the next four years.
OpenAI has relaxed the rules for this tender offer after facing criticism over past offerings, which made it harder for former employees to participate and penalized those who joined competitors. In June, OpenAI informed employees that it had “changed its policies toward secondary share sales to allow current and former employees to participate equally in its annual tender offers,” according to a CNBC report. As fewer tech companies list shares publicly, tender offers have become more crucial for tech workers who often receive a large portion of their compensation in equity.
An intriguing aspect of the current tender offer is the possibility for Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, president Daniela Amodei, and head of policy Jack Clark to sell any OpenAI shares they hold. The trio, who left OpenAI in 2021 to start the competitor Anthropic, would likely qualify to participate in the offer. Anthropic, which recently raised $4 billion from Amazon, declined to comment on whether any of its employees are taking part in the OpenAI tender offer.