OpenAI criticizes Robinhood's 'OpenAI tokens'.

OpenAI has communicated that Robinhood's recent sale of "OpenAI tokens" will not provide consumers with shares or equity in the company. In a statement issued through its official news account, OpenAI clarifies that it does not endorse this initiative by Robinhood nor was it involved in facilitating such a sale. "These 'OpenAI tokens' are not shares of OpenAI," they stated on Wednesday. "We do not collaborate with Robinhood, we are not involved in this, and we do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI shares requires our approval; we did not approve any transfer. Be cautious."

OpenAI's announcement comes in response to Robinhood's statement indicating its intention to start selling tokenized shares of OpenAI, SpaceX, and other private companies in the European Union. According to Robinhood, this launch is an attempt to provide consumers with investment opportunities in the most valuable private companies in the world through blockchain technology. Following the announcement of these token sales, Robinhood's stock reached an all-time high.

However, shares of private companies like OpenAI and SpaceX are not available to the general public, as they are considered private and are only sold to a select group of investors. This prompts OpenAI to publicly distance itself from Robinhood's effort. In response to OpenAI's condemnation, a spokesperson for Robinhood, Rouky Diallo, commented that the OpenAI tokens were part of a "limited" lottery intended to provide investors with indirect access "through Robinhood's participation in a special purpose vehicle (SPV)." This suggests that Robinhood owns shares of an SPV that, in turn, controls a certain number of shares of OpenAI.

The prices of shares in an SPV may differ from the actual share prices of the company. In Robinhood's help center, it is mentioned that by purchasing any of their stock tokens, "you are not buying the actual shares — you are buying tokenized contracts that track their price, recorded on a blockchain."

Robinhood's CEO, Vlad Tenev, indicated in a post that while these tokens are not technically "equity," they "effectively provide retail investors access to these private assets." He also stated that the lottery aims to lay the foundation for something much greater, and various private companies have shown interest in joining the tokenization revolution since the announcement.

OpenAI refrained from making further comments on the matter, and Robinhood did not respond to additional inquiries regarding its SPV. It is known that private companies tend to resist any actions that could impact their capital valuation. For example, in recent months, the robotics startup Figure AI sent cease-and-desist letters to two brokers operating in secondary markets promoting the company's shares. Although the situations are different, most startups prefer to avoid any implication that they have authorized the sale of shares if they have not.