June 25, 2024 – In a significant shift of its policies, OpenAI has announced a revised approach to secondary stock sales, now enabling both current and former employees to participate equally in annual tenders, according to a report by CNBC.
Previously, OpenAI had imposed restrictive measures that determined who could engage in stock sales, causing concerns among shareholders worried about liquidating their multi-million dollar equity holdings. Given the absence of imminent public offerings and the high valuation of OpenAI, which deters potential acquirers, secondary stock sales had been the sole avenue for shareholders to realize part of their paper wealth.
In a document shared through OpenAI’s equity management software last week, the company modified its policy, stating that “all current and former service providers, including employees and consultants, will have the same sales limits.”
Previous filings indicated that for former employees, secondary sales typically occurred several months after current employees’ transactions. In at least two tender offers, former employees had a limit of 2million,whilecurrentemployeeshadalimitof10 million.
It was previously reported that OpenAI, valued at $86 billion in April this year, had become the third-largest unicorn globally on the Hurun 2024 Global Unicorn List, trailing only ByteDance and SpaceX. With this new policy in place, OpenAI aims to enhance liquidity and address shareholders’ concerns, while also ensuring equity and fairness among its stakeholders.
