OpenAI could now be the world's most valuable startup, ahead of Elon Musk's SpaceX and TikTok's parent company ByteDance, after a secondary stock sale designed to retain employees at the ChatGPT maker.

Current and former OpenAI employees sold $6.6 billion in shares to a group of investors, pushing the privately held artificial intelligence company's valuation to $500 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the deal who was not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The investors buying the shares included Thrive Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group and T. Rowe Price, along with Japanese tech giant SoftBank and the United Arab Emirates' MGX, the source said Thursday.

The valuation reflects high expectations for the future of AI technology and continues OpenAI’s remarkable trajectory

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