Wealth Creation Myth: Over 600 OpenAI Employees Cash Out $6.6 Billion, 75 Max Out at $30 Million

According to monitoring by Dongce Beating, The Wall Street Journal has revealed the scale of wealth creation within OpenAI. In an internal stock transaction last October, OpenAI allowed employees to sell up to $30 million in shares each. Ultimately, more than 600 current and former employees participated, cashing out a total of $6.6 billion.

Insiders revealed that about 75 individuals maxed out the $30 million limit. OpenAI's original cash-out cap was $10 million, but due to strong demand from external investors, the company tripled the limit last fall.

Under OpenAI's rules, employees can sell their shares after completing two years of service. This allowed many employees who joined after the release of ChatGPT to cash out their options for the first time. For comparison, OpenAI's stock value has surged more than 100 times over the past seven years. The wealth held by executives is even more staggering; President Greg Brockman confirmed in court testimony on Monday that his current equity is worth approximately $30 billion.

In the Silicon Valley of the past, ordinary employees looking to strike it rich usually had to wait for a company to go public. However, relying on its ultra-high valuation and internal transaction mechanisms, OpenAI has directly turned a large number of employees into multi-millionaires before its IPO.