Comment by no_wizard
5 hours ago
If you can show me that they can sell without OpenAI approval on the secondary market, I would concede in a heartbeat.
If not, I am to assume this isn’t true, and that they are functionally non liquid possible assets at the discretion of OpenAI to sell
Yes, you might need approval, but if there's regular secondary sale does it matter?
> OpenAI has finalized a secondary share sale totaling $6.6 billion, allowing current and former employees to sell stock at a record $500 billion valuation, according to a person familiar with the transaction.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/02/openai-share-sale-500-billio...
Again, that doesn’t make the assets particularly liquid. They did this and that’s fine, but if they hadn’t done this you’d be stuck with a piece of paper even after the lockup period ends.
Until traditional RSUs that once they are vested you can sell them, with few exceptions
Indeed, it's not guaranteed. But now it seems to be expected for those large private companies to unlock employee equity at regular intervals (I'm not sure it was the case 5-10y ago).