OpenAI's $6.6 billion employee tender — the largest private-company tender on record — closed in October at a reported valuation around $500 billion. The per-employee mechanics surfaced this month: more than 600 current and former employees reportedly participated, with about 75 of them clearing a $30 million per-employee cap. Stripe ran another tender in February at a reported $159 billion. Anthropic completed one in April at $350 billion. Decagon, less than three years old, ran its first in March at $4.5 billion. Thursday Thesis: how the tender offer has become a compensation instrument — and what that may mean for how late-stage equity gets paid.