OpenAI wants to make clear that Robinhoods sale of OpenAI tokens will not give everyday consumers equity or stock in OpenAI, the company said in a post from its official newsroom account on X. OpenAI says it does not endorse Robinhoods effort, nor was it involved in facilitating the token sale.

These OpenAI tokens are not OpenAI equity, said OpenAIs newsroom account on Wednesday. We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approvalwe did not approve any transfer. Please be careful.

OpenAIs statement is a response to Robinhoods announcement earlier this week that it would start selling so-called tokenized shares of OpenAI, SpaceX, and other private companies to people in the European Union.

Robinhood says the launch represents an attempt to give everyday people exposure to equity in the worlds most valuable private companies via blockchain. Hours after announcing these token sales, Robinhoods stock price shot to an all-time high.

But stock in private companies like OpenAI and SpaceX are not available to the public. Thats what makes them private. They sell shares to investors of their choosing.

So OpenAI is openly disavowing Robinhoods effort.

In response to OpenAIs condemnation, Robinhood spokesperson Rouky Diallo told TechCrunch that OpenAI tokens were part of a limited giveaway to offer retail investors indirect exposure through Robinhoods ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle (SPV).

Techcrunch event

Boston, MA | July 15

REGISTER NOW

That suggests Robinhood owns shares of an SPV that controls a certain number of OpenAIs shares. Like the tokens, shares of SPVs are not direct ownership of shares, either. They are ownership in a vehicle that owns the shares. In one way or another, Robinhood seems to be tying the price of its new tokenized product to the OpenAI shares in that SPV. But shares prices in an SPV can also differ from prices of an actual share of stock.

In Robinhoods help center, the company notes that when buying any of its stock tokens, you are not buying the actual stocks you are buying tokenized contracts that follow their price, recorded on a blockchain.

While it is true that they arent technically equity, [&] the tokens effectively give retail investors exposure to these private assets, said Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev in a post on X on Wednesday. Our giveaway plants a seed for something much bigger, and since our announcement weve been hearing from many private companies that are eager to join us in the tokenization revolution.

OpenAI declined to comment further. Robinhood did not respond to TechCrunchs additional questions about its SPV.

Private companies are known to push back against anything that could influence how their equity is valued. In recent months, humanoid robotics startup Figure AI sent cease-and-desist letters to two brokers running secondary markets that were marketing the companys stock. Of course, these situations are different, but most startups dont want people to believe that theyve authorized share sales if they havent.