According to Boson Insight monitoring, The Wall Street Journal reported that in a recent funding round, OpenAI allowed each employee to sell shares worth as much as $30 million, making them some of the earliest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom. In October last year, over 600 current and former employees collectively sold their shares, cashing out a total of $6.6 billion.

According to sources familiar with the matter, about 75 individuals sold their full allocation, cashing out the full $30 million. Some of these individuals chose to donate the remaining shares by depositing them into a Donor-Advised Fund, which is a charitable investment account that allows the funds to be used for charitable purposes while enabling the donor to enjoy corresponding tax deductions in the same year. This share sale provides us with a glimpse of the massive influx of funds that is about to flow into San Francisco and other tech hubs.

OpenAI and Anthropic are preparing for a potential future IPO, which could potentially be one of the largest IPOs in history. At that time, thousands of ordinary employees from both companies will be able to sell their shares, with many likely joining the ranks of multi-millionaires as a result.