Robinhood fund buys $75M OpenAI stake, opens retail access

Robinhood Ventures Fund I purchased about $75 million of OpenAI common stock, the fund announced Wednesday. The shares were added to RVI’s concentrated portfolio of private companies. The fund trades on public markets under the ticker RVI.

RVI is a closed-end fund that allows retail investors to buy and sell shares in a standard brokerage account. The fund does not require investors to meet accredited investor thresholds or meet high minimums. Trading in RVI provides liquidity that direct private investments typically lack, which often involve negotiated terms and long lockups.

The fund’s holdings include Stripe, Databricks, ElevenLabs, Ramp, Revolut, Airwallex, Boom, Mercor and Oura alongside the new OpenAI position. Robinhood described the purchase as part of the fund’s effort to broaden access to private market valuations for everyday investors.

Sarah Pinto, president of Robinhood Ventures Fund I, commented in a statement: “OpenAI is one of the frontier artificial intelligence companies, and we are incredibly proud to add them to the Fund. As one of RVI’s largest investments to date, this underscores our core mission to provide everyday investors with access to what we believe are transformative companies shaping the future.”

OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, develops generative AI and was recently valued at about $852 billion. The company competes with other AI developers and major tech firms and is reported to be preparing for a potential public offering later this year, along with peers such as Anthropic.

Regulatory scrutiny of generative AI has increased. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced an investigation into OpenAI to examine whether the company’s systems pose risks related to national security, criminal misuse and child safety, and said subpoenas will be issued as part of the inquiry.

Interest among retail investors in AI exposure has risen across trading platforms. The number of publicly traded U.S. companies has fallen from roughly 7,000 in 2000 to about 4,000 last year, while private firms outnumber public companies by more than 6.5 times as of April 2024. The estimated value of private companies surpassed $10 trillion in the first quarter of 2025.

By placing OpenAI shares into a publicly traded closed-end fund, Robinhood has added a high-value private company to a vehicle that can be bought and sold like a stock, rather than acquired through private financings that often require direct negotiation and long lockup periods.