OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation is going through skepticism from a few of its personal buyers as the corporate scrambles to reorient itself round enterprise clients and fend off Anthropic, according to the Financial Times.
Anthropic’s annualized income jumped from $9 billion on the finish of 2025 to $30 billion by the tip of March, pushed largely by demand for its coding instruments. One investor who has backed each corporations instructed the FT that justifying OpenAI’s spherical required assuming an IPO valuation of $1.2 trillion or extra — making Anthropic’s present $380 billion valuation appear like the relative discount.
The secondary market tells the same story proper now, the place demand for Anthropic shares has grown almost insatiable whereas OpenAI shares are buying and selling at a discount.
Altman has been right here earlier than. Throughout his tenure main Y Combinator, aggressive valuation inflation left some portfolio corporations financially stranded whereas others proved price each penny after which some.
OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar pushed again, telling the FT that the corporate’s $122 billion raise — the biggest non-public fundraising in historical past — was proof of continued investor confidence. Not everyone seems to be persuaded. Jai Das, president of funding agency Sapphire Ventures (who has no stake in both firm) instructed the FT he noticed OpenAI as “the Netscape of AI,” a reference to the once-dominant browser that was overtaken by Microsoft and ultimately absorbed by AOL.
Replace: This piece has been up to date to take away an investor quote printed and later eliminated by the Monetary Occasions.
