OpenAI reported, “These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity,” as OpenAI’s newsroom account stated on Wednesday. “We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer. Please be careful.”
OpenAI’s statement is a response to Robinhood’s announcement earlier this week, saying that it would start selling so-called tokenized shares of OpenAI, SpaceX, and other private companies to people in the EU.
Also worth noting is that the launch represents an attempt to give everyday people exposure to equity in the world’s most valuable private companies via blockchain. Hours after announcing these token sales, Robinhood’s stock price shot to an all-time high.
Yet, stock in private companies such as OpenAI and SpaceX is not available to the public. That’s what makes them private. They sell shares to investors of their choice. So, as a response, OpenAI is disavowing Robinhood’s efforts.
As a response to OpenAI's condemnation, Robinhood spokesperson Rouky Diallo reported for TechCrunch that they were part of a “limited” giveaway that offers retail investors indirect exposure “through Robinhood’s ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV).”
With this statement, we can understand that Robinhood owns shares of an SVP that controls a certain number of OpenAI’s shares. Think about the tokens, shares of SVPs are not direct owners of them either. Robinhood also seems to be tipping the price of its new tokenized product to the OpenAI shares in the SVP. Yet, share prices in an SVP can also differ from the prices of an actual share of stock.
That also means that Robinhood owns shares of an SVP that controls a certain number of OpenAI’s shares. Similar to that, tokens that are shares of SVP are not direct ownership of shares either. They are owners in a vehicle that owns the shares.
More so, in Robinhood’s help centre, the company notes that when buying any of its stock tokens, “you are not buying the actual stocks — you are buying tokenized contracts that follow their price, recorded on a blockchain.”.
While it is true that they aren’t technically ‘equity,’ […] the tokens effectively give retail investors exposure to these private assets,” reported Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev in a post on X on Wednesday. “Our giveaway plants a seed for something much bigger, and since our announcement, we’ve been hearing from many private companies that are eager to join us in the tokenization revolution.”
