OpenAI ex-employees worry about company's control over their millions of dollars in shares

With OpenAI's valuation soaring and an IPO nowhere in sight, the company is giving employees the chance to sell some equity in secondary transactions.

However, current and former OpenAI employees have been increasingly concerned about access to liquidity, according to interviews and documents shared internally.

The paperwork for departing employees says that in order to participate in tender events and liquidity opportunities, the person must be in compliance with"all applicable company policies, as determined by OpenAI.", OpenAI announced it would backtrack on a controversial decision to make former employees choose between signing a non-disparagement agreement that would never expire and keeping their vested equity in the company.

"I think there are further questions to address before I and other OpenAl employees can feel safe from retaliation against us via our vested equity," the ex-employee wrote in an email to the company in late May. He added,"Will the company exclude current or former employees from tender events under any circumstances? If so, what are those circumstances?"

"You often talk about our responsibility to develop AGI safely and to distribute the benefits broadly," he wrote."How do you expect to be trusted with that responsibility when you failed at the much more basic task" of not threatening"to screw over departing employees," the person added. In addition to current and former employees, OpenAI has a third tier for share sales that consists of ex-employees who now work at competitors. Rather than being an official tender, the third group participates in"direct secondary transactions facilitated directly between the buyer and seller," according to an internal document.

Larry Albukerk, founder of EB Exchange, which helps tech workers with pre-IPO stock sales, told CNBC that while companies have a lot of latitude in how they handle tender offers, as long as it's written in the contract, creating an adversarial relationship with former employees can be damaging for morale.

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