OpenAI will let employees sell some stock after its monster fundraising round

• OpenAI workers may soon be allowed to sell their shares in the AI firm, The Information reported.
• The report cited a memo sent to employees that said details on stock sales were being worked out.
• OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in its latest fundraising round.

Workers at OpenAI may soon get the opportunity to sell some of their shares in the company, The Information reported, citing a company memo.

The move to allow employees to cash in follows the ChatGPT creator’s $6.6 billion fundraising round. Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s chief financial officer, said in the memo that the company had “the ability to offer a tender event to give qualifying employees a liquidity option,” per The Information.

Friar reportedly added that the company was still ironing out details and would share information with employees later.

The latest funding round, which was spearheaded by the venture-capital firm Thrive Capital, nearly doubled OpenAI’s valuation, to $157 billion from $86 billion.

Other investors included Microsoft, which invested nearly $1 billion, and Nvidia, which invested about $100 million, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

The company, led by Sam Altman, made headlines last week as a top executive made a public exit. Mira Murati, the chief technology officer, became the latest in a string of departures of high-level execs and researchers.

Meanwhile, reports of internal divisions have swirled as the company prepares to become a for-profit entity after years of operating as a nonprofit that prioritized AI research.