Former OpenAI Employee: If You Want to Cash Out, Do It Now—Don’t Wait for the IPO!

Former OpenAI employee Andrew Ho urged employees to cash out before an IPO through a tender offer, saying he is skeptical of the valuation logic behind frontier AI labs.

He argued that these companies are priced on overly optimistic growth assumptions and could face lockup expiration and selling pressure after going public.

Ho also said AI labs must keep spending heavily to train the next generation of models, leaving major uncertainty between revenue and costs.

His comments highlight tensions around sky-high AI valuations, ongoing capital needs, and the risks of monetizing employee equity before and after an IPO.