OpenAI Secondary Market Demand Rebounds, Valuation Rises to $933 Billion
Claire Weston
OpenAI's secondary-market valuation rose roughly 20% over three months to $933 billion, driven by new model launches and enterprise-user growth — but Anthropic still dominates buyer interest at a $1.2 trillion valuation.
How did secondary-market sentiment turn?
Caplight data puts OpenAI's current secondary-market valuation at roughly $933 billion, up about 20% in three months.
Practical Venture Capital founder Dave McClure says Q1 headwinds — executive departures, slowing growth, the Musk lawsuit — crushed secondary demand at the start of Q2.
This means → the current rebound is not a rush of fresh capital; it is a bounce off a sentiment bottom.
Is Anthropic still the preferred bet?
Rainmaker Securities CEO Glen Anderson says the buyer ratio sits at roughly Anthropic 5 : OpenAI 2. Anthropic still leads.
A month ago OpenAI saw almost no bids. Now it is being bid on noticeably more often.
This means → OpenAI demand is recovering, but the gap with Anthropic has not actually closed — the market is still voting with its money for Anthropic.
What is pulling buyers back?
The most direct driver is new models: OpenAI formally released its flagship GPT-5.6 Sol this month, alongside Terra and the low-cost Luna variant.
Its AI coding agent Codex and enterprise platform ChatGPT Work now count a combined 9 million active users. This means → agentic AI is expanding from the developer community into broader professional workflows.
Independent benchmarks rank GPT-5.6 Sol near the top of the field — but still below Anthropic's latest Mythos and Fable models.
What does "valuation inversion" mean here?
Anthropic long traded at a significant discount on the secondary market. That has now flipped — Anthropic is the more expensive stock.
In plain terms = it used to be cheaper to buy Anthropic than OpenAI; now it is the other way round. Some investors are buying relatively cheaper OpenAI shares to hedge their Anthropic positions.
This reflects a secondary market that is not simply backing one winner, but running a spread trade between the two frontrunners.
What does Altman himself say?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X last week: "The past 12 months have not been good, and that is largely my responsibility."
He immediately added: "We are about to have the best 12 months we've ever had."
McClure cautions that sustained pressure from Chinese and open-source competitors will continue to challenge OpenAI's growth and margins. In plain terms = the CEO has painted a bold picture, but rivals will not wait for him to deliver.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.