OpenAI buys back about $7B of employee shares in a tender at an unchanged $852B valuation
OpenAI completed a tender offer of roughly $7 billion in which current and former employees sold stock back to the company at an $852 billion valuation, the same price as the $122 billion primary round closed in March. Bloomberg first reported the figure on August 10 and CNBC confirmed it; OpenAI funded the purchase with its own cash rather than bringing in outside buyers. It is the company's third employee liquidity event: a $1.5 billion sale in 2024 and a $6.6 billion sale at a $500 billion valuation in October 2025 came before it. Holding the valuation flat signals OpenAI did not want a new mark ahead of a possible 2027 listing. For the rest of the market, a $7 billion company-funded buyback at a flat price is a reminder that the biggest AI secondaries are now retention programs run on the company's own balance sheet, not discounted sales to outside funds.
