(Photo : openai.com)
OpenAI's Employee Stock Sale: SoftBank's AI Expansion Plan

• OpenAI has allowed its employees to sell $1.5 billion worth of shares to SoftBank.
• The offer price aligns with the company's last funding round, and the investment will come from SoftBank's Vision Fund OpenAI's rapid growth has attracted 250 million weekly active users since the launch of ChatGPT.
• This move by OpenAI is similar to Uber's 2016 decision to allow employees to sell shares to SoftBank.

OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT, has recently made a significant move. According to two sources familiar with the matter, the company has permitted its employees to sell approximately $1.5 billion worth of shares to Japan's SoftBank Group. This decision comes in the wake of SoftBank's CEO, Masayoshi Son, actively seeking to increase his stake in the startup after participating in the last funding round.

OpenAI, which is backed by Microsoft, had previously raised $500 million from the Japanese conglomerate in a funding round in October. This round valued the company at a staggering $157 billion. The sources, who wished to remain anonymous due to not being authorized to speak to the media, revealed that OpenAI employees have until December 24 to decide if they wish to participate in this new funding round.

The offer price for the stock aligns with the company's last funding round, and the investment will come from SoftBank's Vision Fund 2. Son has been making strategic moves to expand his conglomerate's exposure to the burgeoning AI industry. He has taken a stake in OpenAI and acquired chip startup Graphcore.

Son's Strategic Moves and OpenAI's Growth

Although Son has not provided specific details about his investment plans, he recently mentioned that he was saving up funds for his next big move. OpenAI's rapid growth in terms of product popularity and valuation has been nothing short of meteoric. Since the launch of ChatGPT, it has managed to attract 250 million weekly active users, capturing the world's imagination.

In related news, SoftBank's Japanese telecoms unit is set to receive the first chips using Nvidia's latest Blackwell design for its supercomputer. This move is part of Son's strategy to ride the AI wave. The two businessmen, Son and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, held a fireside chat at an AI event in Tokyo, where Huang humorously recalled that Son had once offered to lend him money to buy Nvidia.

Nvidia, once primarily known as a designer of graphic chips for gaming, has evolved to become the world's most valuable company, driven by the insatiable demand for its chips. In a bid to find new growth drivers, SoftBank has partnered with Nvidia to pilot a network that can run both 5G and AI services.

Investors Flock to OpenAI's Funding Round

OpenAI's latest funding round was a hot ticket in Silicon Valley, attracting a who's who of investors eager to participate in the AI startup's capital raise. Among the investors is Cathie Wood's ARK Venture Fund, which agreed to invest at least $250 million into this funding round, marking its second investment in the company. Wood has compared the current state of artificial intelligence to that of the internet in the early 1990s.

This move by OpenAI to allow its employees to sell their shares to SoftBank is reminiscent of similar events in the tech industry. For instance, in 2016, Uber had allowed its employees to sell their shares to a consortium led by SoftBank, providing liquidity to the employees while also allowing SoftBank to increase its stake in the company.