OpenAI’s $8.3 billion in new capital may sound impressive. The new funding round will give the company even more rocket fuel as it seeks to maintain its heady pace of growth. The company is currently preparing to sell about $6 billion in stock via a secondary sale. If the move attracts Microsoft’s eventual investment, it raises OpenAI’s valuation to a projected $500 billion. This represents a whopping increase from its last valuation of $300 billion. That comes on the heels of a historic $40 billion funding round in March 2025.
Recently, CEO Sam Altman went to X to provide some context on the company’s progress. Here are some thoughts from him on the major milestones that have led up to this historic funding opportunity. Altman attended the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho on July 8, 2025, where discussions surrounding OpenAI’s future and investment opportunities were prevalent.
Reportedly SoftBank and other investors including Tiger, Temasek and others are involved in this secondary sale. Thrive Capital listed as the likely lead of this round per prior CNBC reporting. This secondary sale would be a way for investors to take advantage of OpenAI’s rapid rise in valuation and its new technological breakthroughs.
As of last week, OpenAI had made GPT-5—their newest, state-of-the-art, large-scale AI model—generally available to all ChatGPT users. Several hundred times greater than the previous leading model, this new model represents a quantum leap in artificial intelligence capabilities. Most importantly, though, it reconfirms OpenAI’s preeminence in the tech industry.
OpenAI’s rapid funding history is a testament to the company’s clear talent at attracting investment. That last funding round of $40 billion was a record for any private tech company. It further clarified for many how confident investors should be in the potential of OpenAI.
Now, as delightfully stated in his recent comments, Altman has learned that getting users’ model choice preferences right is complicated. He stated,
“We for sure underestimated how much some of the things that people like in GPT-4o matter to them, even if GPT-5 performs better in most ways.” – Sam Altman
We hope that this important observation is a signal of OpenAI’s intention to prioritize user needs and safety alongside their development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology.
As OpenAI continues to advance its technology and secure substantial funding, it remains at the forefront of the AI revolution, shaping the future landscape of this rapidly evolving industry.