OpenAI completed a $7 billion tender offer, buying back shares from current and former employees using its own cash rather than bringing in outside investors, a structural choice that keeps its $852 billion valuation benchmark intact and leaves no new names on its cap table ahead of a potential Wall Street debut. The deal, first reported by Bloomberg's Rebecca Torrence and independently confirmed by TechCrunch and CNBC, marks a departure from past practice. In 2024, Thrive Capital led a transaction valuing the company at $80 billion, followed in October 2025 by a $6.6 billion tender at a $500 billion valuation that brought in Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer, MGX, and T. Rowe Price as buyers. This month's transaction used OpenAI's own cash, with no outside buyers participating, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity. The valuation held flat at $852 billion, the same figure set when the company closed its $122 billion primary funding round in March 2026, co-led by Amazon, SoftBank, and Nvidia. This is the first flat valuation print after a run from $157 billion in late 2024 to $300 billion in early 2025, to $500 billion via the October tender, to $852 billion after the March round. Self-funding avoids producing a fresh outside price print that could reshape the narrative ahead of a roadshow.