Anthropic Valuation Hits $1 Trillion on Secondary Markets, Overtaking OpenAI

Anthropic’s implied valuation has crossed $1 trillion on secondary markets, according to Business Insider, which broke the story on April 22, 2026. Forge Global CEO Kelly Rodriques confirmed the valuation directly, reporting that one shareholder offered shares at a $1.15T valuation. Separately, Jesse Leimgruber, founder of OpenHome, posted on X that a "very well known growth fund" bid at $1.05T for his Anthropic shares.

On Hiive, an accredited secondary marketplace, Anthropic shares surged 211% to roughly $900 in three months. By comparison, OpenAI shares only rose 8.5% to $608 over the same period, according to the New York Post.

The jump is dramatic: Anthropic’s February 2026 Series G (led by GIC and Coatue, raising $30B) valued the company at $380 billion. The secondary market implies a 2.6x increase in roughly three months with no material change in the business.

The fundamental catalyst is revenue. The New York Post reports Anthropic’s revenue run rate jumped from roughly $9 billion in late 2025 to over $30 billion by March 2026. Some industry estimates put the figure as high as $39 billion.

The breakout driver is Claude Code, Anthropic’s AI coding assistant. Its adoption is widely cited as a leading revenue growth catalyst. Anthropic’s own Series G announcement stated Claude Code’s run‑rate revenue has grown to over $2.5 billion, more than doubling since the beginning of 2026. Enterprise partnerships with Amazon, Palantir, and others are also contributing.

That said, Anthropic is still reportedly unprofitable despite the revenue growth. The gap between top‑line revenue and profitability matters — public markets will eventually demand a path to margins.

Here’s the catch: these valuations come from thin, illiquid secondary market trading, not primary funding rounds. The supply squeeze — few sellers, many desperate buyers — is inflating prices. As Business Insider notes, institutional investors couldn’t find buyers for $600M in OpenAI shares recently, suggesting OpenAI demand is sagging while Anthropic surges.

Classic late‑stage bubble signals are present. CBS News reported that a Mill Valley homeowner is trying to trade his estate for Anthropic equity. Glen Anderson, CEO of Rainmaker Securities, told Quartz: "It’s almost less about the return than being able to say they’re an Anthropic investor."

Three separate marketplaces — Jupiter (on‑chain, Solana‑based), Forge Global, and Hiive — all converge within 18% of the $1T figure, per BeInCrypto. Anthropic is the third private firm to reach $1T pre‑IPO, joining OpenAI and SpaceX. Neither Anthropic nor OpenAI has commented publicly on the valuations.

Is an IPO imminent? The signals are mixed. BeInCrypto reports that Kalshi prediction markets show a 59% chance of an Anthropic IPO in 2026. Seeking Alpha analysis suggests October 2026 as the earliest window. The Financial Times has reported that Anthropic is planning an IPO as early as 2026.

But an Anthropic spokesperson told Reuters the company "has not decided when or even if it will go public." Reuters also reports that both OpenAI and Anthropic have "planned IPOs," and the Microsoft-OpenAI exclusivity breakup announced April 27 was driven partly by competition with Anthropic ahead of those planned listings.

For builders already in the Claude ecosystem, the valuation milestone is a double signal. On one hand: platform stability. A $1T valuation and impending IPO means Anthropic has the resources to keep scaling. The company isn’t going anywhere. Google’s planned investment of up to $40B ($10B committed plus $30B contingent on performance targets) and partnerships with AWS and Palantir mean Claude tools will have broader distribution paths, per Quartz.

On the other hand: pricing risk. With massive valuation pressure, Anthropic may eventually need to show profitability. That could mean pricing increases for API access, Claude subscriptions, and enterprise contracts post‑IPO. The $0.08/session‑hour Managed Agents fee could rise.

The competitive landscape is also shifting. OpenAI ending Microsoft exclusivity means builders will soon have more choice — OpenAI models on AWS and Google Cloud alongside Claude. Competition could benefit builders through better pricing and features. But an Anthropic driven by quarterly earnings pressure post‑IPO may also deprioritize niche, builder‑friendly features in favor of enterprise revenue.

The Anthropic valuation milestone marks a narrative shift in the AI industry. For two years, OpenAI was the default "pole position" company. Now, secondary market investors are voting with their wallets for Anthropic, driven by Claude Code adoption and enterprise revenue growth.

But a 2.6x valuation jump in three months with no fundamental business change is speculative froth, not revaluation. The real test comes when (or if) Anthropic goes public and faces actual price discovery from public market investors who demand earnings, not just revenue growth.

For now, the message for builders is straightforward: Claude is the platform with momentum, but don’t build your entire business on any single AI provider. The market is moving too fast — and the valuations are too volatile — for any provider to be treated as irreplaceable infrastructure.