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    Anthropic shares now trade more actively than OpenAI on secondary markets, per Rainmaker Securities president Glen Anderson in exclusive comments to TechCrunch

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    The secondary market for private shares is experiencing unprecedented activity, signaling major investor sentiment shift in AI landscape

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    SpaceX’s anticipated IPO could redirect capital away from AI startups, potentially cooling valuations across the sector

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    OpenAI losing ground to Anthropic suggests competitive concerns about ChatGPT’s market position and long-term differentiation

The private market hierarchy just flipped. Anthropic has overtaken OpenAI as the hottest trade in secondary markets, according to Glen Anderson, president of Rainmaker Securities, who says private share trading has never been more active. But the real story might be what happens when SpaceX goes public – a move that could drain billions in liquidity away from AI startups just as valuations reach fever pitch.

Something fundamental shifted in how investors value the AI race. Glen Anderson has watched private markets for decades, but what he’s seeing now with Anthropic represents a genuine inflection point. As president of Rainmaker Securities, Anderson told TechCrunch that Anthropic has become the single most active trade in the secondary market – eclipsing OpenAI for the first time since ChatGPT’s launch.

The reversal speaks volumes about where sophisticated investors think the AI market is heading. OpenAI dominated private market trading through 2024 and most of 2025, riding the ChatGPT wave that redefined consumer AI. But Anthropic’s Claude models have been winning enterprise contracts at an accelerating pace, and institutional investors are placing their bets accordingly. The company’s focus on AI safety and constitutional AI has resonated particularly well with regulated industries like healthcare and finance, where OpenAI’s more aggressive deployment strategy faces scrutiny.

Anderson’s observation carries weight because secondary markets often signal shifts before they show up in primary fundraising rounds. When employees and early investors start trading their shares more actively, it reflects real-time conviction about a company’s trajectory. The fact that Anthropic shares are changing hands more frequently than OpenAI’s suggests a fundamental reassessment of competitive positioning in the foundation model wars.