OpenAI is reportedly on the verge of a roughly $500 billion valuation, a figure that would make it the most valuable private company in the world—bigger than SpaceX , TikTok’s parent company Bytedance , and even public giants like Palantir. It’s a staggering number for a company with an “ astronomical burn rate .” How is this even possible?

As Axios reports , there are actually two deals in play: a SoftBank-led round valuing the company at $300 billion, which won’t close until year’s end, and a secondary sale of employee shares at a far steeper $500 billion valuation. Most of the cheaper shares have already been snapped up, leaving investors to fight over the pricier ones.

One OpenAI investor—who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing an NDA—compared it to the dawn of t

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