A $6.6 Billion Payday for OpenAI Employees

WSJ Tech News Briefing

The Wall Street Journal

Tech News, News

4.3 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Some OpenAI employees are cashing out for millions before the company has even gone public. WSJ reporter Berber Jin explains how the AI boom is creating unprecedented wealth in Silicon Valley through private share sales. Plus, Wall Street is finding AI winners in some unexpected places. WSJ reporter Jared Mitovich breaks down why investors are piling into everything from construction companies to Japanese toilet makers as the AI build-out booms. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think the potential of Agenic is to rethink how work gets done overall.
0:05.0	It challenges all sorts of traditional orthodoxies around how organizations execute the work at hand.
0:11.3	That's Jason Gersatus, CEO of Deloitte U.S., talking about the transformational potential of A.Gentic AI.
0:17.9	Join him later to learn why agents are a game changer for businesses across industries.
0:26.8	Welcome to Tech News briefing. It's Tuesday, May 12th. I'm Imani Moise for the Wall Street Journal.
0:33.7	What do bulldozers, iPhone glass, and Japan's most popular toilets have in common?
0:39.3	The companies that make them are reaping the benefits of the AI boom.
0:43.3	We're taking a look at the unexpected winners of the race to build out AI infrastructure.
0:49.3	Then, we're turning to some expected beneficiaries of AI mania, current and former employees of OpenAI,
0:56.9	who are trading in their equity for millions of dollars. Why it's happening now, before the company
1:02.5	goes public, and what it could mean for the rest of Silicon Valley. But first, investors looking to
1:09.4	cash in on the AI boom are looking beyond chatbots and chipmakers.
1:13.6	Companies supplying key materials are powering not just the AI infrastructure buildout, but also the stock market.
1:20.4	WSJ reporter Jared Medevich joins to walk us through the surprising names, getting a boost from the AI trade.
1:26.7	So, Jared, your story is full of these unexpected AI winners.
1:30.6	What are some of the strangest or most surprising companies getting swept up in this rally right now?
1:35.2	Sure. So I think the strangest one probably has to be Toto. It's this Japanese toilet maker that's
1:40.7	actually been around for a while. You know, my grandpa has a toto toilet and he loves it, but
1:45.0	they've also got this other line of business in advanced ceramics, and they're now totally building
1:50.3	it out, trying to embrace it as their next area for growth, because the advanced ceramics are
1:56.0	actually in high demand among semiconductor companies and those involved with the AI buildouts because of the
2:01.9	specialized material and manufacturing required that TOTO just so happens to specialize in. So it's a funny
	...

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