Robinhood opens pre-IPO OpenAI stock trading to retail investors, letting ordinary people buy shares before the ChatGPT company goes public

Robinhood, the retail investment app, announced it will let its users buy shares of OpenAI through a special pre-IPO offering — giving non-millionaire investors access to one of AI's most valuable private companies before it potentially launches a public stock offering.

OpenAI is currently valued at roughly $157 billion but remains privately held; this move lets regular people invest in the company at its current price rather than waiting for a public IPO when prices typically jump on day one.

For retail investors, this removes a barrier that previously locked ordinary people out of high-potential startups — you no longer need connections or wealth to get in early on a company like OpenAI, though trading in pre-IPO shares carries higher risk since they're less liquid (harder to sell quickly) than public stocks.