OpenAI walks back controversial stock sale policies, will treat current and former employees the same

OpenAI has reversed its policies towards secondary share sales, and will now allow current and former employees to participate equally in annual tender offers, CNBC has learned.

The artificial intelligence startup has taken a restrictive approach in the past, with rules allowing the company to determine who gets to participate in stock sales, CNBC reported earlier this month. That led to concern among many shareholders about their ability to get liquidity for some of the millions of dollars worth of equity they own.

In a document shared last week through OpenAI's equity administration software, the company altered its policy and said that "all sellers (current and former service providers) will have the same sales limit." Service providers include employees and advisors, OpenAI said in the document, which was viewed by CNBC.

An OpenAI spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tender offers have become a particularly sensitive subject of late due to OpenAI's skyrocketing valuation, which followed the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, and a relatively dormant IPO market for well over two years. With no public offering on the horizon and a price tag that makes the company prohibitively expensive for would-be acquirers, secondary stock sales are the only way in the near future for shareholders to pocket a portion of their paper wealth.

Current and former OpenAI employees previously told CNBC that there was growing concern about access to liquidity after reports that the company had the power to claw back vested equity. OpenAI, backed by roughly $13 billion from Microsoft, has been valued at over $80 billion.

Earlier documents indicated that, for former employees, secondary sales typically took place months