Devoured - April 24, 2026
Anthropic just overtook OpenAI with $1 trillion valuation (2 minute read)

Anthropic just overtook OpenAI with $1 trillion valuation (2 minute read)

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Anthropic's valuation hit $1 trillion on secondary markets, surpassing OpenAI's $880 billion, driven by share scarcity and surging demand for its Claude Code developer tool.

What: Anthropic reached a $1 trillion valuation on Forge Global, a platform for trading private company shares, compared to its official $380 billion valuation from three months earlier. The spike stems from limited share availability as investors flood shareholders with unsolicited offers, fueled by Claude Code's rapid adoption among developers and major partnerships with Amazon and Palantir.
Why it matters: The gap between secondary market pricing and official funding rounds reveals how scarcity can inflate valuations beyond fundamentals, though Anthropic's revenue run rate jumping from $9 billion to $39 billion in four months suggests real momentum beyond speculation.
Decoder
  • Secondary market: Platform where investors buy and sell shares of private companies from existing shareholders, separate from official funding rounds where companies raise new capital directly\n* Forge Global: Trading platform that facilitates secondary market transactions for private company shares\n* Annualized run rate: Current monthly or quarterly revenue projected over a full year to estimate annual performance
Original article

Anthropic just overtook OpenAI with $1 trillion valuation

Anthropic's app for its Claude chatbot (right) pictured alongside OpenAI's ChatGPT (iStock/ Getty Images)
Anthropic's app for its Claude chatbot (right) pictured alongside OpenAI's ChatGPT (iStock/ Getty Images)

Anthropic is now valued higher than its main competitor, OpenAI, according to share sales on secondary markets.

The artificial intelligence firm hit a $1 trillion valuation on Forge Global, a financial platform that allows investors to acquire shares from private companies.

The figure is considerably higher than the $380 billion that Anthropic was valued at during a funding round three months ago.

ChatGPT creator OpenAI is currently trading at around $880 billion on Forge Global – roughly equivalent to its $852 billion valuation from its latest funding round.

The inflated value of Anthropic, which owns the Claude chatbot, appears to come from a shortage of available shares, with shareholders reportedly being inundated with unsolicited offers for their stakes.

"Just got offered a $1.05 trillion valuation on my Anthropic shares from a very well known growth fund," Anthropic investor Jesse Leimgruber wrote in a post to X. "Absolutely wild."

Investor interest has been driven by Anthropic's revenue growth, which has risen rapidly amid mass adoption of its Claude Code tool among developers, as well as partnerships with tech giants like Amazon and Palantir.

The firm's annualised run rate rose from $9 billion in late 2025 to $39 billion in March 2026, according to figures seen by Business Insider.

"We receive daily offers, from the ridiculous to the sublime," Bradley Horowitz, a partner at Wisdom Ventures and an early investor in Anthropic, told the publication.

"It's almost less about the return than being able to say they're an Anthropic investor."

Rainmaker Securities CEO Glen Anderson, who received an offer to buy Anthropic shares at a $960 billion valuation, added: "It's been an epic run for Anthropic. Everybody wants to be part of a generational opportunity in AI, and right now, Anthropic is in the pole position."

Some people have even offered to exchange their property for Anthropic shares, according to a post on LinkedIn.

The Independent has reached out to Anthropic and OpenAI for comment.