Shares of Anthropic changed hands on private secondary markets this week at an implied valuation of $1.2 trillion, according to Business Insider — a figure that, if it held in a real fundraising round, would make the Claude developer more valuable than OpenAI for the first time.
The trades were confirmed by Javier Avalos, chief executive of secondary-trading platform Caplight, who described Anthropic as “the most sought-after company the venture secondary market has ever seen.” Glen Anderson, CEO of rival broker Rainmaker Securities, told the outlet he had seen deals price at a similar level, though completed transactions remain rare because almost no current shareholders are willing to sell.
A 550% jump in a year
The $1.2 trillion figure marks a roughly 550% increase from Anthropic’s valuation a year earlier and sits well above the $965 billion price tag set in the company’s last primary funding round, a Series H that closed in late May. Secondary-market prices reflect what investors are willing to pay for existing shares rather than money raised directly by the company, so they can run ahead of — or behind — the valuation set in an official round.
On the same platforms, OpenAI is currently trading at an implied $908 billion, according to the report, meaning Anthropic has overtaken its larger rival on paper for the first time. Anderson said the imbalance comes down to scarcity rather than a shift in sentiment toward OpenAI: “The demand outstrips the supply in Anthropic so much that it’s rare to get a trade done because no one’s selling.”
The surge comes weeks after Anthropic filed a confidential prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in early June, a standard early step toward an eventual initial public offering that sets no fixed timeline for when — or whether — the company might actually go public.
Because secondary-market trades are private, illiquid and often based on a handful of transactions, the $1.2 trillion figure is best read as a signal of investor appetite rather than a formal valuation. Neither Anthropic nor OpenAI has confirmed the numbers, and Anthropic has previously warned prospective investors to treat unofficial offers to buy or sell its shares with skepticism.