Oct 2 (Reuters) - OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT,

has reached a valuation of $500 billion, following a deal in

which current and former employees sold roughly $6.6 billion

worth of shares, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters

on Thursday.

This represents a bump-up from its current valuation of $300

billion, underscoring OpenAI's rapid gains in both users and

revenue. Reuters reported details of the stock sale earlier in

August.

As part of the deal, OpenAI employees sold shares to a

consortium of investors including Thrive Capital, SoftBank,

Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi's MGX and T. Rowe Price ( TROW ),

according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity

as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The company had authorized sales of $10-billion-plus worth

of stock on the secondary market, the source added.

Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer, MGX and T. Rowe Price ( TROW )

did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The share sale adds to SoftBank's earlier investment in

OpenAI's $40 billion primary funding round.

The company generated around $4.3 billion in revenue in the

first half of 2025, about 16% more than it generated all of last

year, the Information reported earlier this week.

The sale comes at a time when tech giants are competing

aggressively for AI talent with lucrative compensation packages.

Meta is notably investing billions in Scale AI and

poached its 28-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang, to lead its new

super intelligence unit.