Quoting John Gruber

Simon Willison's Blog / 5/5/2026

💬 OpinionSignals & Early TrendsIndustry & Market Moves

Key Points

  • The post quotes John Gruber discussing Y Combinator’s ownership stake in OpenAI and the difficulty of verifying its exact size.
  • Gruber reports that Y Combinator holds about 0.6% of OpenAI based on information from sources familiar with OpenAI investors.
  • Using OpenAI’s cited valuation of $852 billion, the estimated stake value would be over $5 billion.
  • The page is presented by Simon Willison’s Weblog as a collected quotation, with no new research or announcement beyond the quoted claim.
Sponsored by: MongoDB — Join MongoDB.local London 2026 on 7 May to learn how teams move AI from prototype to production.

5th May 2026

So it’s well known that Y Combinator owns some stake in OpenAI. But how big is that stake? This seems like devilishly difficult information to obtain. I asked around and a little birdie who knows several OpenAI investors came back with an answer: Y Combinator owns about 0.6 percent of OpenAI. At OpenAI’s current $852 billion valuation, that’s worth over $5 billion.

John Gruber, Y Combinator’s Stake in OpenAI

Posted 5th May 2026 at 12:46 am

This is a quotation collected by Simon Willison, posted on 5th May 2026.

john-gruber 40 y-combinator 59 ai 2002 openai 417

Quoting John Gruber | AI Navigate