OpenAI

TradingKey – On August 10, US East Coast time, OpenAI completed a stock buyback totaling approximately 7 billion US dollars from its own corporate funds, according to CNBC. This allows current and former employees to sell their shares at a valuation of 852 billion US dollars, in contrast to previous financing rounds by external investors. Secondary market sales have become an integral part of OpenAI's pre-IPO strategy. 6 billion US dollar tender offer last October at a valuation of 500 billion US dollars. Preparations for this 7 billion US dollar buyback began after the completion of a record-breaking 122 billion US dollar financing round in March of this year and serve as a continuation of this strategy.

For the company, this helps to alleviate liquidity pressure on employee stock holdings. OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June but has not yet announced an official timeline for the listing. Analysts point out that conducting buybacks with own funds instead of external financing helps to streamline the shareholder register and reduce the complexity of the equity structure before the IPO. Furthermore, it avoids using prices set by external investors as a reference for later IPO pricing, which ensures greater flexibility for the company during the official bookbuilding process.