Anthropic hits $1.2T on secondaries, but no one's selling

What's the deal? AnthropicDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s valuation has reached $1.2 trillion on secondary markets, where existing shares change hands before a company goes public. But sellers are scarce. "The demand outstrips the supply in Anthropic so much that it's rare to get a trade done because no one's selling," said Glen Anderson, CEO of merchant bank Rainmaker SecuritiesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.

Why now? The figure marks a 550% year-over-year jump, according to Javier Avalos, cofounder and CEO of secondary trading platform Caplight. Anthropic was last valued at $965 billion in a Series H round announced in May 2026. In June 2026 it filed to go public, with an IPO expected within months.

The IPO thread: Because Anthropic has yet to list, most investors can only buy via secondary markets, where employees or early backers sell stock. With shares soaring, few will part with them. Anthropic entered an SEC-mandated quiet period before its IPO, after sharing surging revenue numbers.

What could go wrong? Scarcity has spawned deals with high fees and complex ownership. Many are structured as special-purpose vehicles (SPVs), which pool investor funds for one-off deals. "Most of the supply we have seen in the market has been via SPV structures the company is openly against," Avalos said.

Anthropic has grown more explicit in warning against unauthorized sales. "Invest at your own risk: if someone offers you a way to participate, even on an indirect basis, in an investment in Anthropic, assume that it is invalid," the company states on its website.

The rivalry: Anthropic overtook OpenAI at a $1 trillion valuation less than three months earlier, per Business Insider. OpenAI now trades at $908 billion on Caplight. Anthropic still draws five buyers for every two seeking OpenAI shares, though OpenAI has gained momentum since the rollout of its GPT-5.6 model series.

The signal: Secondary prices reflect illiquid, minority stakes with no board seats and no guaranteed exit — the figure is built on scarcity, not sales. Matt Murphy, a partner at early backer Menlo Ventures, called such valuations a "noisy signal," while acknowledging the hype behind Anthropic's revenue.

Read more: Business Insider · The Next Web · Quartz