Robinhood Buys $75M OpenAI Stake Through Listed Fund

Robinhood confirmed Wednesday it purchased a $75 million stake in OpenAI through Robinhood Ventures Fund I (RVI), the exchange-listed vehicle the company launched in March. The purchase gives individual investors a publicly traded way to gain exposure to the private AI company.

RVI began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in March and is designed to let retail investors participate in unlisted growth companies that are remaining private longer. Robinhood noted there are more than 6.5 times as many private companies as public ones in the U.S. and estimated the aggregate value of U.S. private firms topped $10 trillion in the first quarter of 2025. The firm also pointed out that the number of publicly traded U.S. companies has fallen from about 7,000 in 2000 to roughly 4,000 in 2025.

Sarah Pinto, president of Robinhood Ventures Fund I, described OpenAI as “one of the frontier artificial intelligence companies” and said the fund is “incredibly proud to add them to the Fund.”

Robinhood highlighted market patterns that have increased retail demand for access to companies such as OpenAI. High-growth technology firms have delayed initial public offerings, raised large private financing rounds and retained tighter control, which has made early private exposure more attractive to smaller investors. RVI links public-market liquidity to returns from private companies without requiring those companies to list.

The announcement follows a public dispute last summer over tokenized shares. Robinhood had offered tokenized products tied to OpenAI and SpaceX to users in Europe; OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman objected and blocked those tokenized products, saying they did not represent actual equity. The fund purchase is an equity stake held in a registered vehicle that trades on a U.S. exchange.

Robinhood’s stock has shown mixed performance. Trading around $86 a share, the stock was up 9.3% over the past seven days and 21.9% over the prior 30 days, down about 25.0% year-to-date and up 105.3% over the last year. Robinhood cited a valuation score of 1 out of 6 for the company under its metrics.

On Wednesday, crypto-linked equities were among the stronger premarket names in the S&P 500 as Bitcoin rallied and markets reacted to reports of an extended U.S. cease-fire with Iran. MicroStrategy rose 2.2% before the open, Robinhood gained 1.6% and Coinbase added 1.8%. Iliya Kalchev, an analyst at Nexo, attributed the gains in crypto-linked stocks to Bitcoin’s strength.

Many private technology firms, including those focused on artificial intelligence, have grown substantially without listing. Robinhood’s RVI provides a publicly traded option tied to private growth companies, giving retail investors another way to access unlisted opportunities.