Over 600 OpenAI employees became millionaires in a single day last year: Report
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Over 600 OpenAI employees became millionaires in a single day last year: Report")
OpenAI employees got millions in shares sale. Photograph: (AFP)
OpenAI's bid to reward its team with a tender offer led to 600 employees becoming millionaires, with each of them getting at least $11 million after sale of shares. The profits were unprecedented in the technology industry, showing the scale of wealth in the artificial intelligence sector.
More than 600 OpenAI employees cashed in a combined $6.6 billion worth of stocks in a single day of October 2025, with each landing nearly 11 million dollars. According to the Wall Street Journal, this was one of the largest employee stock sales in the history of the technology industry. This included both current and former employees. Around 75 of them pocketed $30 million, the maximum permitted amount. This shows the sheer amount of wealth being created by the artificial intelligence companies, even before an IPO. As big tech companies continue to shy away from public listings, OpenAI is leaning into tender offers to reward its team. In a major boost to employee liquidity, the company hiked its internal share-selling cap from $10 million to a staggering $30 million per person. Many large private technology companies are opting for the tender mechanism as they delay their public listings. The cap rose following demand from investors.
OpenAI employees with stocks need to wait two years before selling them. In October, many of them got the first opportunity to sell their shares since the launch of ChatGPT. While all 600 of them technically became millionaires following the shares, not all of them chose to keep all the money with them. According to WSJ, many placed their remaining shares into donor-advised funds, where the money is invested in charitable investment accounts. It goes towards philanthropic causes and lets them claim tax deductions in the same financial year.
Also Read: ‘Deeply sorry’: Sam Altman admits OpenAI didn’t report Canada mass shooter’s ChatGPT account
This sale and moolah minting was unprecedented in the technology industry, as never had rank-and-file workers ended up with such a large amount of money. The value of shares for those who joined OpenAI when the company first issued stocks seven years ago rose more than 100-fold, according to a WSJ report. For context, in the same period, the Nasdaq composite roughly tripled.
Open AI salaries and equity options for employees
OpenAI offers competitive salaries for certain technical roles, with annual salaries exceeding $500,000. The stock-based compensation given by the company exceeds that offered by other major technology companies. In 2025, OpenAI gave millions of dollars in one-time bonuses to some employees. Some OpenAI executives hold equities worth billions of dollars. Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president, has an estimated 30 billion dollars worth of them. Meanwhile, Sam Altman has none as the company is structured as a nonprofit organisation.
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