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OpenAI Becomes World's Most Valuable Startup After $500 Billion Valuation (yahoo.com)

(Friday October 03, 2025 @11:30PM (BeauHD) from the would-you-look-at-that dept.)


OpenAI's valuation has [1]surged to $500 billion after a $6.6 billion secondary stock sale , briefly making it the world's most valuable startup ahead of SpaceX and ByteDance. The Associated Press reports:

> Current and former OpenAI employees sold $6.6 billion in shares to a group of investors, pushing the privately held artificial intelligence company's valuation to $500 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the deal who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The investors buying the shares included Thrive Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group and T. Rowe Price, along with Japanese tech giant SoftBank and the United Arab Emirates' MGX, the source said Thursday.

>

> The valuation reflects high expectations for the future of AI technology and continues OpenAI's remarkable trajectory from its start as a nonprofit research lab in 2015. But with the San Francisco-based company not yet turning a profit, it could also amplify concerns about an AI bubble if the generative AI products made by OpenAI and its competitors don't meet the expectations of investors pouring billions of dollars into research and development.



[1] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openai-now-worth-500-billion-195534705.html



What is a start-up? (Score:3)

by VaccinesCauseAdults ( 7114361 )

Aren’t Apple and Microsoft also start-ups, albeit somewhat older.

Re: (Score:3)

by TurboStar ( 712836 )

A start-up is any company that is funded by investor money with aspirations to go public in order to obtain more investor money. That's what my observations indicate anyway. It's not like a checkbox on an official form or anything.

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. (Score:5, Interesting)

by niftydude ( 1745144 )

The AI bubble is 17 times the size of the dot-com frenzy, and four times the subprime bubble, analyst says. It's not just a bubble but an epically sized one. [1]https://www.marketwatch.com/st... [marketwatch.com]

[1] https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-ai-bubble-is-17-times-the-size-of-the-dot-com-frenzy-this-analyst-argues-046e7c5c

Re: Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. (Score:3)

by niftydude ( 1745144 )

Ooh, look. AI slop defending AI.

Follow the link I posted for the methodology for calculation of the 17x. And if it does fall down under your 'scrutiny' please do post your 'logic' so we can all laugh at it.

Re: (Score:2)

by Frank Burly ( 4247955 )

This sort of AI spam argument is a good example of the immerse drawbacks of AI.

Re: Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. (Score:2)

by Kyogreex ( 2700775 )

> The AI bubble is 17 times the size of the dot-com frenzy

Sure, if you ignore inflation and other factors. If you look at other figures and adjust for inflation it's around the same size.

Just demonstrates that valuations are nonsense (Score:2)

by gweihir ( 88907 )

Seriously.

MARTA WAS WATCHING THE FOOTBALL GAME with me when she said, "You know most
of these sports are based on the idea of one group protecting its
territory from invasion by another group."

"Yeah," I said, trying not to laugh. Girls are funny.
-- Jack Handey, The New Mexican, 1988.