Anthropic's valuation jumped 25% in a month to reach $1.5 trillion — Business Insider

Anthropic's valuation on the over-the-counter market has surged to $1.5 trillion as the company prepares for its initial public offering. It is currently extremely difficult to purchase shares in the startup: very few people are willing to sell them, according to Business Insider.

Anthropic’s valuation in the private market recently soared to $1.5 trillion, up 25% over the past month, according to Business Insider, citing three over-the-counter brokers. The catch is that the shares are extremely hard to come by, the publication notes.

"The few sellers on our lists are targeting roughly $1.5 trillion. Even with that figure, there aren't that many sellers in the market," said Glen Anderson, CEO of Rainmaker Securities.

"People are trying to position themselves ahead of the IPO," added Adam Crowley, president of Augment, a private equity investment platform.

At the same time, the company began posting explicit warnings on its website about unauthorized stock sales and fraud. Some buyers heeded the warnings and began to be more selective in choosing which securities to purchase, notes Aman Verji, general partner at Practical Venture Capital.

"Many buyers are now requesting direct listing in the shareholder registry. Demand for multi-tiered investment structures (Special Purpose Vehicles, SPVs) with indirect ownership, fewer reporting rights, or access to earlier funding rounds and Anthropic common stock is weaker, and I don’t see much demand for this at a $1.5 trillion valuation, although there is some,” he said.

Anthropic declined to comment to BI.

Since Anthropic is still a private company, the vast majority of investors purchase shares on secondary markets, where existing shares are sold by employees or early investors, BI explains.

Some of these transactions are legitimate, while others involve questionable dealings, high fees, and convoluted ownership structures in the form of SPVs, which allow investors to pool their funds for a one-time transaction, the publication notes.

During the funding round announced in May, Anthropic was valued at $965 billion. In June, the company filed for an IPO, and its public market debut is expected in the coming months.

Anthropic’s valuation on the secondary market continues to rise, even as competitors close the gap. Anthropic investors expect the AI giant to go public in October with a valuation of $2 trillion, the Financial Times reported. If so, its offering would surpass SpaceX’s listing and become the largest IPO in history.

OpenAI, for its part, has seen renewed interest from secondary buyers this summer, according to BI. Nevertheless, the company’s valuation has remained relatively stable, hovering around the $852 billion mark set during the March funding round, while supply in the market has increased, notes Adam Crowley.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor