OpenAI's $852B Valuation Faces Investor Doubt as Anthropic Surges
SkimNews Take
Because OpenAI remains private, Anthropic's surging secondary share prices are functioning as the price-discovery mechanism an IPO market normally would — implicitly anchoring a ceiling on what OpenAI's next raise can command.
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- OpenAI's $852 billion valuation is facing skepticism from some of its own investors, per the FT, as the company scrambles to reorient around enterprise customers and fend off Anthropic.
- Anthropic's annualized revenue jumped from $9 billion at the end of 2025 to $30 billion by the end of March, driven largely by demand for its coding tools.
- An investor who has backed both companies told the FT that justifying OpenAI's round required assuming an IPO valuation of $1.2 trillion or more — making Anthropic's current $380 billion valuation look like the relative bargain.
- On the secondary market, demand for Anthropic shares has grown 'nearly insatiable' while OpenAI shares are trading at a discount.
- OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar pushed back, telling the FT that the company's $122 billion raise — the largest private fundraising in history — was evidence of continued investor confidence.
- Sapphire Ventures president Jai Das, who holds no stake in either company, called OpenAI 'the Netscape of AI.'
Why it matters: An investor committed to both companies now sees more value in Anthropic's $380 billion tag than in OpenAI's $852 billion, and the secondary market corroborates it — OpenAI shares trade at a discount while Anthropic demand is 'nearly insatiable.' That dynamic makes the $1.2 trillion IPO scenario needed to justify OpenAI's last round materially harder to reach, not easier.
