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

Three months after closing a $380 billion Series G, Anthropic has reached an implied valuation of $1 trillion on secondary markets, according to data from Forge Global, a major platform for private-company share transactions. The figure puts Anthropic ahead of OpenAI, whose shares are trading at an implied valuation of roughly $880 billion on the same marketplace. It is the first time Anthropic has exceeded its largest rival by this measure, and it reflects a dramatic compression of the gap between the two companies' perceived worth.

The speed of the move is what distinguishes it. Anthropic's $380 billion primary valuation was itself set only in February 2026. By May, secondary buyers had pushed the implied price to more than two and a half times that figure in under 90 days. For context, OpenAI took roughly four years to move from a $10 billion valuation to its current secondary-market range. Anthropic has now covered similar ground in a single quarter.

What Drove the Revenue Surge

The primary engine behind Anthropic's valuation trajectory is a revenue run that few analysts predicted at this velocity. The company ended 2025 at roughly $9 billion in annualized revenue. By March 2026, that figure had reached $30 billion, a 233% increase in under 90 days. Anthropic executives have attributed the acceleration to Claude's coding tools, specifically Claude Code and the managed-agent infrastructure that Anthropic has been building out since early in the year.

That framing is consistent with what enterprise customers have been reporting. Uber's engineering team said in March that Claude Code had absorbed four months of planned engineering budget in under a week following their initial rollout. Demand from software-development teams across financial services, healthcare, and technology companies has created a compounding effect: as more developers adopt Claude Code, more enterprise contracts follow, and those contracts are getting larger. The number of enterprise accounts spending more than $1 million annually with Anthropic doubled in less than two months during the first quarter.

The company's broader enterprise momentum has reinforced that picture. Partnerships with KPMG, PwC, Bristol Myers Squibb, and SAP, all signed within a six-week window in May 2026, point to a pattern of large organizations committing to Claude as a platform rather than a tool. Each of those deals involves multi-year commitments and, in most cases, seat counts above 10,000.

"Many people want to buy Anthropic shares, but there are not many available because employees and early investors have had few chances to sell. As buyers compete for the limited shares, prices go up quickly." Forge Global, secondary market analysis, May 2026

Secondary Markets and Their Limits

Secondary market valuations carry different weight than primary rounds, and market observers have been careful to note the distinction. When institutional investors price a primary round, they negotiate with the company directly, conduct due diligence on financials and cap table, and accept restrictions that come with minority stakes in private companies. Secondary market prices reflect what a buyer is willing to pay for shares that are often illiquid, carry no board rights, and may be subject to transfer restrictions. A $1 trillion secondary price does not mean Anthropic could raise $1 trillion in a primary offering today.

The practical test of Anthropic's valuation will come when the company files a registration statement with the SEC. Reports from Bloomberg indicate that Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are in early discussions as underwriters for a potential IPO targeting October 2026, with bankers' internal estimates placing an IPO valuation in the $400-500 billion range. That figure is roughly half the secondary market price, which suggests that institutional investors planning for a public offering are applying a meaningful discount for liquidity risk and market timing.

The Competitive Picture

That OpenAI has ceded the secondary-market lead to Anthropic marks a shift in how investors are positioning around the two companies. OpenAI completed a $40 billion funding round at an $852 billion valuation in early 2026, but its shares have since traded below their primary-round price on secondary markets, an unusual outcome that typically signals concern about near-term growth relative to the price paid in the primary. Anthropic's shares, by contrast, have traded at a substantial premium to their February primary price within weeks of the round closing.

The divergence partly reflects different revenue growth trajectories, but it also reflects the limited supply of Anthropic shares available for secondary sale. The company has been aggressive about policing unauthorized share structures, including special-purpose vehicles and crypto tokens that claimed exposure to Anthropic equity without authorization. That enforcement has kept the available float low, which tends to push secondary prices higher when demand is strong.

Whether the $1 trillion mark holds as Anthropic moves toward a public offering remains to be seen. Secondary markets in private tech companies have historically been volatile, and the correction following the 2021 peak wiped 60 to 70 percent of value from many names that had traded at elevated implied prices. The difference this time, at least for Anthropic's bulls, is that the revenue numbers are real and accelerating. That is a more durable foundation than most of the 2021 cohort had to stand on.