Sam Altman may never have imagined that his creation, OpenAI, would not only change the world but also reshape how capital markets value companies. As the highest-valued startup globally, OpenAI’s private shares are trading at $723.00 on the secondary market.
Yet in the crypto world, a token called OPENAIERC fluctuates at less than $0.004, with no direct connection to the actual OpenAI company.
01 The Unlisted Giant
OpenAI has not yet gone public and remains a private company. This hasn’t stopped it from becoming the world’s most highly valued startup.
According to Yahoo Finance, as of January 15, 2026, OpenAI’s private market share price stood at $723.00, with a staggering company valuation of $499.92 billion.
This valuation firmly secures OpenAI’s position as the most expensive startup in the world, far surpassing the runner-up, SpaceX (around $350 billion). In just over a year, OpenAI’s valuation has seen explosive growth.
Looking at its funding history, when OpenAI raised $575 million in October 2024, its valuation was only $15.7 billion. By March 2025, a $4 billion funding round pushed its valuation up to $300 billion.
02 Financial Challenges and Valuation Debates
What supports such a lofty valuation is OpenAI’s rapid revenue growth—matched by equally dramatic losses. In the first half of 2025, OpenAI generated $4.3 billion in revenue, already surpassing its total revenue for all of 2024.
At the same time, the company posted a net loss of $13.5 billion, with cash burn reaching $2.5 billion. R&D remains the largest expense, totaling $6.7 billion, mainly for developing new AI models and operating products like ChatGPT.
Renowned short-seller Michael Burry bluntly stated, "If OpenAI’s valuation really hits $500 billion, I would absolutely short it without hesitation."
He believes there’s a huge gap between capital expenditures in the AI sector and actual revenue, and many investments may not deliver the expected returns.
03 Tokenized Assets and Private Shares
For ordinary investors, directly buying OpenAI private shares is a high-barrier endeavor. The crypto market, however, offers an alternative—tokenized stocks.
These assets attempt to track the price performance of related companies but are not issued directly by those companies. On platforms like Gate, you’ll find such tokenized assets, giving investors another way to participate in the AI boom.
It’s important to distinguish that cryptocurrencies bearing the "OpenAI" name (such as OPENAIERC) do not represent equity in OpenAI. Instead, they are independent crypto assets.
As of April 21, 2025, OPENAIERC was priced at about $0.003943, up 4.80% in a single day. In contrast, tokenized stocks actually linked to OpenAI equity trade at around $1,000.
The table below compares these two easily confused asset types:
| Asset Type | Latest Price (USD) | Data As Of | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| OPENAIERC Token | ~$0.003943 | April 2025 | Cryptocurrency, no direct equity link to OpenAI |
| OPAI.PVT Private Shares | $723.00 | January 2026 | Private market shares representing actual OpenAI equity |
| Tokenized Stocks (Forecast) | $998.17 - $999.19 | January 2026 | Blockchain tokens tracking company share price performance |
04 Stargate and the Capital Game
OpenAI’s future is closely tied to a massive initiative called "Stargate." This $500 billion AI infrastructure project is jointly driven by OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank.
In January 2026, OpenAI and SoftBank announced a $1 billion investment in renewable energy developer SB Energy to support the expansion of AI infrastructure.
These huge investments reflect OpenAI’s expectations for exponential growth in computing power demand. The company has already signed data center and related infrastructure agreements totaling more than $1.4 trillion.
Sam Altman believes, "Only by building enough computational capacity can AI fulfill its promise."
05 How to Ride the AI Investment Wave on Gate
For investors looking to position themselves in the AI sector, Gate offers multiple ways to participate. The platform lists a variety of AI-related tokens and tokenized assets, providing users with convenient investment channels.
Before investing, it’s crucial to distinguish between different asset types: tokenized stocks representing company equity, utility tokens tied to AI technology, and meme coins that simply use "AI" or "OpenAI" as a marketing gimmick.
Investment decisions should be based on thorough research, not just name association. Gate’s advantage lies in its wide selection of trading pairs and liquidity, allowing investors to quickly enter or exit positions.
The platform also offers detailed project information and real-time data to help users make more informed decisions.
Looking Ahead
A chart fills the screen, showing global AI computing capacity reaching the equivalent of 15 million H100 GPUs. Next to it, OpenAI’s valuation curve rises almost vertically—from $1.57 billion to $500 billion in less than two years.
Shifting left, the energy consumption figures are striking: just running AI chips consumes 10GW, equivalent to the average electricity usage of two New York Cities.
When Sam Altman declares, "We’ve crossed the event horizon; liftoff has begun," he’s pointing not only to a technological singularity, but also to a high-stakes gamble involving capital, energy, and human ingenuity.
