OpenAI stock in the secondary market “can’t be sold,” investors rush into Anthropic betting on a valuation overtake

Despite the fact that OpenAI only just completed what is the largest-ever fundraising on Tuesday, in the private secondary market its shares are quietly losing favor with buyers. At the same time, its rival Anthropic is sparking a buying frenzy, as investors are taking real-world action to reassess the future potential of the two AI giants.

$600 million in OpenAI stock for sale with no takers—secondary market demand cools

According to a report by Bloomberg, Next Round Capital, a secondary market platform, founder Ken Smythe said that in recent weeks, six hedge funds and VC firms have repeatedly come calling, hoping to sell a total of about $600 million worth of OpenAI stock, but the market reaction has been lukewarm:

“We have hundreds of institutional investors in our database, yet we can’t find a single person willing to take these shares. By contrast, last year, shares like these were often snapped up within days.”

At present, the quoted valuation for OpenAI shares in the market is about $6,650 million, down nearly nine-tenths from its latest valuation of $8.5 billion, a clearly noticeable decline.

(OpenAI valued at $852 billion raises $122 billion—does this money only last for one year?)

Buyer capital pours into Anthropic—valuation grows by more than 50%

At the same time, Anthropic is capturing most of the market demand. On the same platform, buyers have already lined up as much as $2 billion in funds, ready to invest in Anthropic shares; meanwhile, purchase demand registered on another secondary market platform, Hiive, has also surpassed $1.6 billion.

Augment co-founder Adam Crawley said the market values Anthropic at about $600 billion—more than 50% higher than its valuation in the previous funding round of $380 billion:

“The current risk-reward profile is more favorable for Anthropic. Everyone is betting that Anthropic’s valuation will eventually catch up to—or even surpass—OpenAI. But if you buy OpenAI now, the return in the short term has a lot of uncertainty.”

Corporate positioning and cost structure—Venture investors shift toward the key

Analysts believe the change in investors’ attitudes boils down to differences in the companies’ business strategies.

While OpenAI has a large consumer user base, it has been slow to expand in the more profitable enterprise customer market, and it continues to pour massive sums into building infrastructure, keeping operating costs high. Anthropic is just the opposite: it has already taken a leading position in the high-margin enterprise market, and its growth trajectory is widely viewed as promising.

Worth noting is that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have started offering OpenAI stock to wealth management clients without charging carry fees; however, on the Goldman platform, trading in Anthropic stock still follows the usual practice of charging about 15% to 20% of the profit-share.

(How can retail investors invest in OpenAI? Analyzing indirect positioning before the IPO)

Government pressure and management shortcomings are Anthropic’s biggest concerns

Of course, Anthropic is not without challenges. The company recently found itself listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as a supply-chain risk blacklisted entity and was barred by government agencies to use; the company has filed a lawsuit in response. Just a few days ago, a serious cybersecurity incident also occurred, inadvertently leaking the internal source code of the Claude model, prompting outside questions about the company’s internal management.

On Tuesday, OpenAI announced that it had completed a $122 billion fundraising round—the largest in history. Funding sources include tech giants, venture capital funds, and retail investors. However, even if demand in the primary market appears solid, the flow of capital in the secondary market often more accurately reflects the real judgments of savvy investors.

This article, “OpenAI stock can’t be sold in the secondary market—investors rush into Anthropic to bet that its valuation overtakes,” first appeared on 链新闻 ABMedia.