EXCLUSIVE: Anthropic Trades Above $1 Trillion in Private Markets as Holders Sit Tight

Anthropic’s private-market valuation has climbed above the $965 billion price tag investors assigned to the artificial-intelligence company in its latest funding round, as buyers pile into shares ahead of an anticipated blockbuster initial public offering.

Secondary-market investors are now paying more for stakes in the company, David Shapiro, founder and CEO of OpenVC, which tracks private-market valuations, told Benzinga. The NYSE OpenVC Unicorn Index put Anthropic’s implied valuation at $1.17 trillion as of Sept. 2, representing a roughly 21% premium to its latest primary-market valuation.

"Anthropic’s shares are likely trading higher in anticipation of an eventual IPO rumored to be in the $2tn range, and as they have continued to outperform competitors," Shapiro said.

The premium illustrates how private investors are increasingly pricing Anthropic not just on its current financial performance, but on expectations for what the company could be worth once public investors can buy its shares.

Demand Is Outpacing the Supply of Anthropic Shares

"It’s currently trading above the last round because demand is now running into scarcity," said Evan Mills, a financial adviser at Scholar Advising. "Investors want exposure, and many of the existing shareholders are unable or unwilling to sell."

Secondary funds, family offices and venture investors are among those seeking access to Anthropic before an IPO, Mills said. Their bets extend beyond the company’s current revenue, toward its potential leadership in enterprise coding and so-called agentic AI.

"[Investors] are betting that Anthropic is going to be a leader in enterprise coding, agentic work, and they’re really trying to get ahead of the IPO, when it becomes available for the public markets," Mills said.

Anthropic’s rapid growth has given those investors fundamental reasons for optimism. The company has reported a sharp increase in revenue as businesses adopt its Claude AI models, while its position as one of a small group of leading frontier AI companies has created additional demand for its shares.

Still, private-market pricing can incorporate expectations that may not survive an IPO.

"Some of the price is based on revenue growth and enterprise demand, but that’s not to say that pre-IPO scarcity is not also included in the price right now," Mills said.

Anthropic’s $1T Valuation Raises the Stakes

At the current valuation, investors are also pricing in significant future growth. Lu Zhang, founder and managing partner of Fusion Fund, said current secondary-market valuations imply that Anthropic will continue growing rapidly while improving its operating leverage as the business scales.

"Current secondary-market valuations imply that Anthropic will continue growing at an exceptional pace while gradually demonstrating improving operating leverage as the business scales," Zhang said.

That could become a problem if public investors take a more skeptical view of the economics of frontier AI. Anthropic’s rapid growth requires enormous spending on computing infrastructure and model development, making profitability and operating leverage increasingly important to its eventual public-market valuation.

"The biggest risk isn’t necessarily slower revenue growth," Zhang said. "It’s if public investors conclude that the long-term economics of frontier AI are less attractive than private investors currently expect."

Mills said the valuation leaves little room for Anthropic to fall short of expectations.

"With the $1 trillion valuation, or anywhere north of that, it requires a lot of success to already be true," Mills said. "Investors are not looking to buy Anthropic’s current success, they’re trying to buy their future success."

For now, private investors appear willing to pay up for that future. At $1.17 trillion, Anthropic’s private-market valuation suggests investors are betting the company can continue its rapid growth and emerge as a dominant enterprise AI platform.

But if the IPO prices below that level, those investors could discover that the scarcity premium they paid for private shares disappears once the company becomes available to the broader public market.

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