OpenAI Is Letting Individuals Invest In Its US$852 Billion Valuation—Here’s How

This article, written by Leila Sheridan, was originally published on Inc.com.

For the first time, OpenAI is welcoming individual investors. 

The company announced it has raised more than US$3 billion from individual investors by expanding participation through bank channels, marking a significant shift for a company that has largely remained backed by institutional capital. 

Investor expansion doesn’t end there, though. OpenAI will now be included in several exchange-traded funds managed by ARK Invest, further widening access to its equity. 

“We are really trying to take to heart our mission, which is AGI for the benefit of humanity and thinking about access,” OpenAI chief financial officer Sarah Friar told Axios. “Not just access to the technology, but also access to the economic upside that it’s driving.”

That shift comes as OpenAI’s valuation and influence continue to ascend rapidly. The company recently closed a funding round totaling $122 billion in committed capital, bringing its post-money valuation to $852 billion, according to Axios. A large portion of that backing comes from major tech and investment players, including earlier commitments totaling $110 billion from Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank.

Some of that capital is already being deployed, while additional tranches remain conditional. Amazon’s remaining $35 billion investment, for example, is tied to milestones including a potential IPO by 2028. Nvidia and SoftBank have each committed to additional $10 billion installments scheduled later this year, underscoring both the scale of the bet and the expectations tied to OpenAI’s continued growth.

Those expectations are being fueled by unusually rapid adoption and monetization. In a company statement, OpenAI said it “was the fastest technology platform to reach 10 million users, the fastest to 100 million users, and soon the fastest to 1 billion weekly active users.” 

Revenue has scaled just as quickly. Within a year of launching ChatGPT, the company reached $1 billion in revenue. Now, the company is generating about $2 billion per month today. “At this stage, we are growing revenue four times faster than the companies that defined the Internet and mobile eras, including Alphabet and Meta,” the statement reads. 

At the consumer level, ChatGPT remains the dominant AI platform, with more than 900 million weekly active users and over 50 million subscribers. According to the company, it generates significantly more web traffic and engagement than competing AI apps, capturing a disproportionate share of total time spent in the category.

That scale is beginning to translate into new revenue streams. The company announced that search usage has nearly tripled over the past year, while OpenAI’s advertising pilot reached more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue in under six weeks, an unusually fast ramp that suggests strong early demand from marketers. 

OpenAI continues to scale its technology and revenue, but now, it’s also scaling the pool of beneficiaries. In doing so, the company is turning what has largely been an institutional bet into a broader market opportunity, one that could reshape how the gains of the AI boom are distributed.