Openai, an artificial intelligence company, has become the world’s largest startup after reaching a $500 billion valuation in secondary stock sales.
Citing an anonymous source, Bloomberg reported Thursday that current and former Openai employees sold $6.6 billion in stake to investors including Thrive Capital, Softbank Group Corp, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi’s MGX and T. Rowe Price.
The investment round raised Openai’s valuation to $500 billion, jumping over Elon Musk’s startup SpaceX, with a market capitalization of around $400 billion. The company is also warning other startups such as Baitedance and Humanity, which are valued at $220 billion and $183 billion respectively.
Not only does the transaction show excitement around AI, but there is also an increase in overlap between AI and blockchain, with capital in technology being seen as the next pillar of digital infrastructure.
Openai and Crypto Companies
For $500 billion, Openai heads for Crypto’s biggest player. According to Google Finance, Coinbase’s largest publicly traded Crypto Exchange has a market capitalization of around $89 billion.
Even the most promising crypto companies, such as Ripple, Circle, and Binance, have not broken past the $100 billion barrier.
However, with Stablecoins gaining traction worldwide, publisher Tether could be the closest crypto company to rival Openai’s market capitalization.
On June 7th, Artemis CEO Jon Ma claimed that if Tether were published, it would be the 19th largest public company, valuing it at $515 billion.
Tether CEO Paolo Aldoino responded to the MA and said that while $515 billion is a “beautiful number,” he thought he was “a little bearish” given the Bitcoin and Gold Treasury Department. He also said “it doesn’t need it” for Tether to make it public.
AI Agent Becomes the Largest Stablecoin User
Some say there is a synergistic effect between the two, as both AI and Stablecoins are leading the development of digital infrastructure.
On September 3rd, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz said that AI agents will become Stablecoins’ biggest user.
Analysts have recently linked Stablecoin transactions to bots, so Novogratz’s predictions may already be beginning to take shape. On Wednesday, CEX.IO survey stated that over 70% of Stablecoin transactions in the third quarter of 2025 were related to BOT activities.
Meanwhile, Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital is also active in the AI business. On August 15, the company secured a $1.4 billion loan and quickly tracked the Texas Helios AI data center.
The company expects data centers to make more than $1 billion a year after providing physical infrastructure for CoreWeave’s AI and high performance computing (HPC) operations.
Related: More than 70% of Q3 Stablecoin transactions linked to bots have been discovered
The increased risk of AI development
AI continues to grow, but Akash founder Greg Osuri said its energy requirements are also very intense and the current energy grid cannot keep up.
At Token2049 in Singapore, Osuri told Cointelegraph that AI could soon need nuclear power to maintain its training model.
“We’re approaching where AI is killing people,” he says, calling for more sustainable approaches such as distributed AI training.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry9mi57pbjs
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