Chat GPT Maker, Open AI, reportedly closing in on an 86 billion dollar valuation.

Why it's selling shares now, to whom, and its unorthodox corporate structure.

It's Thursday, October 19th.

Welcome to the Tech Check Podcast.

I'm Deere DiRbosa.

Our story today, Open AI, getting closer to a deal that could value the startup at 86 billion dollars but it's not

raising money D it is not raising money this is a tender offer according to

Bloomberg meaning that there's no new money involved, rather it's going to let employees and existing investors sell some shares.

And that really continues a trend that's been building over the last decade. We talk a lot about this on

Tech Gilbert, but some of the most exciting startups have allowed insiders to

cash out on some of their equity and that relieves pressure to IPO which is a

much larger liquidity event with public disclosures, price discovery, and a listing making this company public so that ultimately lets the ordinary investor participate in the upside or the

downside.

Open AI isn't alone here.

Unicorns like Stripe are essentially saying private for longer, i.e.

uninvestable for longer.

And I always remember, Mark, when I first got here in San Francisco,

I was covering companies like Uber and Lyft and Instacart.

And they were growing like crazy, but they were

uninvestable to the American public.

So what these tender offers do

is just relieve that pressure, let them stay private for longer.

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