The maker of ChatGPT is on the cusp of becoming the world’s most valuable private company. OpenAI is in talks to sell $6bn in shares, which would boost its valuation to $500bn, according to multiple reports. The artificial intelligence startup’s stock would be sold to investors by current and former employees.

OpenAI has seen exponential growth over the past year. Investors, including Microsoft and SoftBank, have poured at least $40bn into the startup, giving it a valuation of $300bn as of March. Last October, it was valued at $157bn.

If OpenAI achieves a $500bn valuation, it would surpass Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which currently holds the title of world’s most valuable privately held company, at $350bn.

The reported cohort of investors now eyeing OpenAI’s share sale include three firms that have already invested: SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group and Thrive Capital. According to Bloomberg, the talks are in early stages and the numbers could change. OpenAI declined to comment.

OpenAI leads a crowded and competitive race, with the world’s most powerful companies battling to beat out one another on AI. Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft have all been spending enormous sums on AI development – hiring engineers and building data centers. The four companies have spent a combined $155bn on AI development in 2025 alone.

Although artificial intelligence has improved since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, OpenAI received a lukewarm reception at the debut of its latest version of the AI that underpins its chatbot, GPT-5, earlier this month. Users said the new AI model’s writing was worse and that it lacked the personality of previous iterations.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said his company is pursuing “artificial general intelligence”, or an AI that can outdo a human at most tasks, but at the recent launch, he said GPT-5 was “generally intelligent”, but was not yet able to “continuously learn”.

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AI companies have also been increasingly scrutinized by regulators for chatbots that create harmful conversations and manipulate users.