OpenAI Reaches $500 Billion Valuation - 1

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OpenAI Reaches $500 Billion Valuation

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

OpenAI has completed a share-sale deal involving former and current employees, reaching a reported valuation of $500 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • Anonymous sources said OpenAI reached a $500 billion valuation.
  • The company’s employees and former employees sold $6.6 billion worth of shares to a group of investors.
  • OpenAI is now “the world’s most valuable privately held company.”

According to Reuters , anonymous sources confirmed OpenAI authorized employees to sell up to $10 billion worth of shares to a group of investors, including SoftBank, Thrive Capital, Abu Dhabi’s MGX, T. Rowe Price, and Dragoneer Investment Group..

Employees ultimately sold $6.6 billion worth of shares, below the authorized amount—a move viewed as a positive sign of confidence in the company’s long-term future.

OpenAI has reportedly now reached a $500 billion valuation, a sharp increase as the company was valued at $300 billion in August. The startup has been growing at a fast pace in the past few years, especially considering that it was valued at $157 billion by this time last year , meaning it has more than doubled its value within less than 1 year.

According to CNBC , only former and current employees who had held OpenAI shares for more than two years were eligible to participate in the sale, which was first announced in early September.

This deal awards OpenAI the status of “the world’s most valuable privately held company.” The AI startup has surpassed SpaceX, which is currently valued at approximately $456 billion.

The transaction is also seen as a strategy to reward and retain employees, while postponing or potentially avoiding an initial public offering (IPO).

In the first half of 2025, OpenAI reportedly generated about $4.3 billion in revenue, already exceeding its full-year 2024 revenue by 16%, according to The Information.

Other AI companies have also been closing new deals to grow and expand in the fertile AI market. A few weeks ago, Anthropic raised $13 billion in funding , reaching a valuation of $185 billion.

Wikimedia Announced A New AI-Accessible Data System - 2

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Wikimedia Announced A New AI-Accessible Data System

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Wikipedia’s operator, the Wikimedia Foundation, announced on Wednesday a new AI-friendly database called the Wikidata Embedding Project, designed to make its information easier for AI systems to process.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

  • The Wikimedia Foundation announced a new AI-friendly database called the Wikidata Embedding Project.
  • The vector-based system has been designed to help smaller AI organizations and open-source projects create AI-driven applications with accurate information.
  • It has also enabled Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration.

According to The Verge , the nonprofit launched this initiative as an extension of its Wikipedia Embedding Project, originally developed by its German branch to enhance search functionality by integrating vector-based semantic search.

Wikimedia Deutschland—which manages the collaborative database Wikidata—spent a year developing the system with the help of a large language model (LLM). The effort transformed 19 million data entries into vectors that capture context and meaning within Wikidata.

Lydia Pintscher, Wikidata portfolio lead, told The Verge that the vectorized format structures information like a graph of interconnected lines and dots, making it easier for AI developers to access. While large AI companies such as Anthropic and OpenAI have the resources to vectorize Wikidata themselves, this new project is aimed at smaller organizations.

“Really, for me, it’s about giving them that edge up and to at least give them a chance, right?” said Pintscher. She added that she hopes more projects, such as Govdirectory—a fact-checked, crowdsourced directory of official government services and social media accounts—will use Wikidata for the public good.

“Beyond improving search for Wikidata, this project also encourages the open-source AI/ML community to build innovative solutions on top of a structured and publicly accessible knowledge graph,” states the Wikidata page . “By making the tools and data open-source, the project empowers developers to create new AI-driven applications that leverage Wikidata’s inclusive and accessible knowledge.”

The team expects the project will help niche topics gain better representation across the internet. It has also enabled Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration—an initiative launched by Anthropic and joined by multiple companies and organizations—so that AI agents can query the database autonomously. To achieve this, the team used an AI model from Jina AI and stored the resulting vector database for free with IBM’s DataStax.

Wikipedia has previously raised concerns about AI-generated errors and hallucinations. This new project could help reduce hallucinations and preserve knowledge.