$600 million worth of OpenAI shares find no buyers in the secondary market, while Anthropic shares are in high demand.

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OpenAI's stock has fallen out of favor in the secondary market, and in some cases is nearly impossible to sell, as investors have quickly shifted to its biggest competitor, Anthropic.

Although OpenAI has been stepping up its efforts to raise tens of billions of dollars in recent months, industry insiders reveal that demand for OpenAI on secondary market platforms is declining:

Ken Smythe, founder of Next Round Capital, said that in recent weeks, about six institutional investors—including hedge funds and venture capital companies holding substantial stakes—have contacted his firm seeking to sell approximately $600 million of OpenAI stock.

Last year, these shares would usually be snapped up within a few days. But now, there is no interest.

Smythe stated, "Among a pool of hundreds of institutional investors, we can hardly find anyone willing to take on these shares. My company has brokered $2.5 billion in deals. Meanwhile, buyers say they have $2 billion in cash ready to invest in Anthropic."

At the same time, other trading platforms are also observing record demand for Anthropic, including Augment and Hiive:

Adam Crawley, co-founder of Augment, said that the huge valuation gap between OpenAI's $852 billion and Anthropic's $380 billion is prompting investors to scramble for Anthropic's equity before its valuation rises. "The current risk-reward is better. People are betting that Anthropic's valuation will catch up with OpenAI. But if you buy OpenAI shares, the short-term return is less clear."

On Tuesday this week, OpenAI announced it had completed its largest ever fundraising round, raising $122 billion from tech giants, venture funds, and retail investors. Data from Next Round shows that the current market bid for OpenAI is about $765 billion, roughly a 10% discount to its previous $850 billion valuation.

Market demand for Anthropic is noticeably higher. Both Crawley and Next Round have observed that bids for Anthropic's valuation are around $600 billion, more than 50% higher than its previous fundraising round. Crawley said, "This demand is among the highest we've ever seen, almost infinite interest." Additionally, demand registered for Anthropic shares on the Hiive platform has exceeded $1.6 billion, and also comes with a premium.

According to media reports citing informed sources, Wall Street banks including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have begun offering OpenAI shares to wealth clients without charging a carry. At the same time, Goldman Sachs still charges the regular carry fee—usually about 15% to 20% of the profit—on clients interested in investing in Anthropic.

Without company approval, both Anthropic and OpenAI do not allow investors to trade their shares on the secondary market. However, investors can still gain exposure to these shares on various platforms through methods such as special purpose vehicles (SPVs).

OpenAI writes on its official website: "OpenAI does not endorse or participate in these transactions. Such actions violate our transfer restrictions and may cause the associated equity to become invalid."

Primary market fundraising and secondary market trading don’t always follow the same logic. In fundraising rounds, existing investors are usually offered the chance to increase their holdings to maintain their stake proportions; and to avoid directly refusing (which might upset founders), they can choose to subscribe and then sell off some exposure in the secondary market.

In recent years, AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic have both achieved rapid growth, especially since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022 and Anthropic later launched Claude. Both companies are also considering IPO plans, and OpenAI may go public as soon as this year.

Some investors have become more cautious about OpenAI's rapidly rising operating costs. The company has pledged to invest far more than Anthropic in infrastructure in the coming years to support its AI strategy. While OpenAI has a strong consumer base, it has been slow in acquiring higher-margin enterprise customers. In contrast, Anthropic already dominates this high-margin market, so its growth trajectory appears more robust.

However, Anthropic faces its own challenges. The company is suing the U.S. Department of Defense after the Pentagon listed it as a supply chain risk and ordered a ban on government agencies using its technology. Additionally, just this week, Anthropic experienced its second security incident in a matter of days, accidentally leaking Claude's internal source code.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerThe market involves risks and investment needs to be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account any individual's specific investment goals, financial situation, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinion, viewpoint, or conclusion in this article is suitable for their own circumstances. All investments made based on this article are at your own risk. ```