OpenAI buys back $7B of employee stock itself instead of tapping outside investors, at a flat $852B valuation before its IPO

OpenAI closed a tender offer letting current and former employees sell roughly $7B in stock, buying the shares back itself instead of bringing in outside investors, according to Bloomberg. The sale priced the company at $852B, flat against its March round, which raised $122B from Big Tech and venture firms. Every earlier tender moved the number up, from $1.5B at a $157B valuation in late 2024 to $6.6B at $500B last October, when Thrive Capital, SoftBank, and T. Rowe Price bought in. This one is the first that didn’t move, and the first OpenAI paid for out of its own pocket, which means no new name on the cap table and no outside buyer setting a price.