OpenAI does not 'endorse' Robinhood tokenizing its private shares, AI studio says

Sam Altman's artificial intelligence firm OpenAI slammed the trading platform Robinhood for offering tokenized versions of its private company shares, according to an announcement on Wednesday. 

"These 'OpenAI tokens' are not OpenAI equity," OpenAI wrote on the social media platform X. "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."

On Monday, Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev revealed that company would start offering tokenized shares of private company equity — including OpenAI, Elon Musk's aerospace firm SpaceX, and over 200 other firms — in the EU. The firm is the latest to jump into the trend of offering onchain stock trading.

Tenev unveiled these "stock tokens" alongside a bevy of other product announcements, including perpetuals trading and staking in the U.S., and a Layer 2 blockchain network built on Arbitrum, The Block previously reported. 

"Robinhood Stock Tokens follow the prices of publicly-traded stocks and ETFs — they are derivatives tracked on the blockchain, giving you exposure to the U.S. market," the platform wrote in a web page about these assets. "When buying stock tokens, you are not buying the actual stocks — you are buying tokenized contracts that follow their price, recorded on a blockchain."

Robinhood is not the only platform offer tokenized shares of private company equity. On June 25, the investment platform Republic also noted plans to offer stock tokens for private artificial intelligence firms OpenAI and Anthropic to improve retail access to otherwise out-of-reach investment opportunities. Tokenized shares of private company equity won't give the holder shareholder rights, Republic noted, but they are a way for the investor to still gain exposure to these private companies, as the tokens directly track the value of the company's shares. 

The Block reached out to Robinhood for additional comment.