Elon Musk responds to OpenAI stock cooling off in the secondary market

According to reports, OpenAI’s stock has fallen out of favor in the secondary market, and in some cases, has become nearly impossible to sell, prompting investors to quickly shift their focus to its biggest competitor, Anthropic.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to related reports shared by netizens on social media, commenting, “Not surprising at all.”

The report states that Anthropic has become a hot company in the artificial intelligence investment field, with its stock trading demand reaching a record high in the secondary market, while OpenAI struggles to find buyers. Many institutional investors are preparing to invest billions of dollars to purchase Anthropic’s stock, contrasting sharply with OpenAI’s recent difficulty in selling about $600 million worth of stock.

This shift in investor sentiment is noteworthy. Ken Smitt, founder of Next Round Capital, revealed that despite reaching out to hundreds of institutional investors, they have not found any willing buyers for OpenAI stock in recent weeks. Last year, such stocks would sell out within days, but now, even at a discounted valuation of $765 billion (a 10% decrease from the previous $850 billion), there is no interest.

Meanwhile, Anthropic is experiencing a surge of enthusiasm. Bidding offers on platforms like Next Round and Augment have valued the company at around $600 billion, more than 50% higher than the previous funding round. Another trading platform, Hiive, also received demand exceeding $1.6 billion for Anthropic stock, with premiums close to that level. Prab Rattan, co-founder of Hiive, stated that this demand is among the highest ever.

Risk-reward considerations seem to be the main reason for this divergence. Adam Crawley, co-founder of Augment, pointed out that Anthropic’s $380 billion valuation, compared to OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation, indicates greater upside potential. “People are betting that Anthropic’s valuation will eventually catch up with OpenAI,” Crawley said, adding that the short-term returns on OpenAI stock seem uncertain.

Operational factors are also at play. OpenAI has made large investments in infrastructure to achieve its artificial intelligence goals, attracting attention, especially given its failure to successfully attract high-margin enterprise clients. In contrast, Anthropic has already dominated in this lucrative area, boosting its growth prospects.

Banking strategies also reflect this difference. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have waived commissions for selling OpenAI stock to high-net-worth clients, while Goldman Sachs maintains a standard 15% to 20% commission on Anthropic stock, indicating strong confidence in its profitability.

However, Anthropic is not without challenges. The company is involved in a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Defense over a supply chain risk designation that prohibits the government from using its technology. Additionally, a second security vulnerability this week led to an accidental leak of internal source code for its Claude model.

Despite this, investor enthusiasm remains undiminished. While OpenAI has just completed a record-breaking $122 billion funding round, the strong momentum of Anthropic in the secondary market cannot be ignored, with bidding reflecting a narrowing valuation gap between the two.