Tom Lee-backed Eightco doubles in OpenAI as total raises to $90 million
Eightco Holdings (ORBS), a Nasdaq-listed company backed by Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee, is deepening its bets on OpenAI. The company said on Friday it made another commitment of $40 million, taking its value to $90 million.
Eightco (NASDAQ: ORBS) Invests $40 Million in OpenAI, Bringing OpenAI’s Total Investment to $90 Million pic.twitter.com/5MKbhM6k7K
– Eightco Holdings, Inc. (@Eightcoholdings) March 20, 2026
Shares now make up about 30% of Eightco’s net worth. The company also backs Beast Industries, a media venture led by YouTube creator MrBeast.
Eightco CEO Kevin O’Donnell called OpenAI’s investment a “transformational opportunity” for both the company and its shareholders, adding that it gives retail investors access to one of the world’s most valuable AI companies.
“This investment highlights our continued belief in the long-term impact of artificial intelligence and puts ORBS at the forefront of innovation as this technology reshapes industries around the world,” said O’Donnell.
OpenAI recently closed a record $110 billion in private funding, with participation from Amazon, NVIDIA, and a group of private equity funds. That round lowered its stated value to $730 billion.
The company has surpassed $20 billion in annual revenue as of January 2026, more than tripling the estimated $6 billion in 2024.
Eightco’s investment was revealed along with two board appointments.
Lee will join Eightco’s board of directors, while Brett Winton, chief futurist at Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, has been appointed as an advisor to the board.
In addition to its OpenAI position, Eightco maintains 277 million WLD, 11,068 ETH, and $76 million in cash and stablecoins.
WLD’s position makes Eightco the largest publicly traded shareholder in the Worldcoin ecosystem, a digital identity and crypto project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The token has lost nearly 97% of its value from an all-time high of $11.7, per CoinGecko.
ORBS shares fell 4% to $0.90 on the day, according to Yahoo Finance, and are down about 46% year to date. The decline comes despite an increase in trading volume following several stimulus announcements.
OpenAI prepares for IPO
OpenAI is preparing for a possible IPO as early as the fourth quarter, while sharpening its focus on business growth and high-productivity use cases for ChatGPT.
At a recent all-hands meeting, Applications chief executive Fidji Simo told employees the company is taking a “serious look” at enterprise applications, aiming to convert its 900 million weekly users into powerful, high-end computing customers.
The company is also building its finance team and refining its spending plans, targeting nearly $600 billion in computing investment by 2030 and projected revenue of more than $280 billion.
