Anthropic Opens $5–6Bn Employee Share Sale at $350Bn Valuation

Anthropic is allowing some current and former staff to sell their shares at a valuation of around $350bn, people with knowledge of the plan told Bloomberg — effectively letting them cash out at the level of the company’s recent $30bn fundraising.

The AI firm has arranged between $5bn and $6bn for the secondary sale, though the final size will depend on how many eligible employees decide to participate, one of the people informed the news agency. The details are still being worked out and remain subject to change. Anthropic’s latest funding round earlier this month valued the company at $380bn on a post-money basis, including fresh investor capital.

The shares will be purchased by outside investors, not by Anthropic itself, and the offer will be available to current and former employees who have been with the company for at least a year, the report added.

Secondary sales have become a common mechanism for startups to let employees realise some of the value of their equity before an acquisition or stock-market listing, particularly in the highly competitive AI talent market where major firms are choosing to stay private for longer.

Other large private companies, including Stripe Inc. and SpaceX, have allowed employees to sell shares. OpenAI — Anthropic’s biggest competitor — has also regularly run such transactions, including a $6.6bn secondary sale last year at a $500bn valuation.

Anthropic, OpenAI and SpaceX have all taken steps in recent months that suggest they are moving closer to eventual initial public offerings.