Openai is already worth half dollars, its employees are selling shares … and the San Francisco Explorado real estate market

OpenAI has closed a secondary sale of shares of 6,600 million dollars that places its valuation at 500,000 million. In addition to a financial milestone, this is also an earthquake in the San Francisco real estate market, where employees more than two years old are monetizing part of their participations to buy properties.

Why is it important. The operation allows current and old workers to sell Equity to investors eager to access the company’s shareholders or increase its presence in it. They are actors like SoftBank, Thrive Capital or MGX of Abu Dhabi.

Openai had authorized sales for more than 10,000 million, although it finally only materialized 66% of that amount. A year ago, its valuation was 157,000 million. It rose to 300,000 million in March 2025, and now reaches 500,000 million, surpassing Spacex (456,000 million).

The context. San Francisco real estate agents They are seeing something they had not seen before: Buyers who sell shares of private companies to pay tickets of $ 375,000 (the average in certain neighborhoods of the city) or directly buy in cash.

Neighborhoods like Hayes Valley (renamed ‘Valley brain‘For the concentration of AI startups), Noe Valley and Mission Bay are receiving direct pressure from these new buyers with a deep pocket.

Mechanics. OpenAI and other AI companies remain private (that is, without going to be traded in the stock market) much longer than the technological startups of previous generations.

Employees cannot wait years in an IPO to access their paper wealth. So secondary markets, where private shareholders sell to institutional investors, have become the fast road to convert cash actions.

Between the lines. This secondary sale fulfills two functions:

1. On the one hand, it is a retention tool in the middle of a brutal war for talent: Goal has signed at least seven OpenAi Top engineers This summer, often with millionaire bonds.
2. On the other, it allows Openai to keep employees happy who could be frustrated by the lack of liquidity, without having to go over or dilute the control.

Yes, but. The OpenAI conversion into a profit company It has not been reversed by a final sentence. In March 2025, a federal judge rejected Elon Musk’s request to issue a precautionary measure to block that change, although he allowed several of his claims to proceed to trial.

On the other hand, some investment conditions linked fund commitments (for example of softbank) to which OpenAi advanced with its restructuring, so that if certain milestones were not fulfilled, those commitments could be affected. Musk, who co -founded Openai and left the organization in 2018, sued Openai and Altman arguing that they had breached foundational commitments by moving away from his original non -profit mission.

The impact. The consequences in San Francisco go beyond buyers with a lot of money:

• AI companies such as OpenAi, Anthropic and company are causing An increase in housing demand in neighborhoods close to their work.
• The cycle features: more well -paid employees generate more demand, more pressure on prices, and more need for immediate liquidity to compete in a market where cash offers have an advantage.

Real estate professionals point out A change with respect to previous booms technological: Buyers not only have a high heritage, but also have access to immediate liquidity through secondary markets. They sell just enough for entry and closing expenses, and maintain their exposure to the company, but ensure a tangible asset that diversifies their risk.

The big question. Is this sustainable? Openai right now is The most valuable startup in the worldbut loses money while competing in an AI infrastructure race that needs almost unlimited money. If the valuation bubble is deflated, thousands of employees with huge mortgages based on overvalued shares could be seen in trouble.

At the moment, the secondary market is creating a new class of owners in San Francisco: AI engineers who have turned code into houses without waiting for the Wall Street bell to sound.

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Outstanding image | Joshua Sortino