Throughout much of this year, the spotlight was firmly on Anthropic, with investors showing little interest in OpenAI. However, recent developments indicate a shift in preference: Anthropic remains a top choice, yet OpenAI is witnessing a notable increase in demand following the launch of its highly anticipated models and the success of its AI coding tool, Codex.
Dave McClure, the founder and managing partner at Practical Venture Capital, which specializes in acquiring secondary shares of pre-IPO firms, noted, "In the last month, there's been a resurgence of interest."
Both Anthropic and OpenAI are currently private companies, prompting most investors to acquire shares through secondary markets, where stock is provided by employees or early backers. This market lacks liquidity and is fragmented, rendering listed valuations approximate rather than reflective of ongoing public-market transactions.
McClure explained that earlier this year, OpenAI dealt with a slew of negative press regarding issues like sluggish growth, executive turnover, and competition from Anthropic, alongside a lawsuit involving Elon Musk. This resulted in a significant drop in demand for OpenAI shares during the early stages of the second quarter.
Though Anthropic still leads the market by attracting five interested buyers for every two looking for OpenAI shares, Glen Anderson, CEO of Rainmaker Securities, observed, "Just a month back, the demand for OpenAI was quite limited, but we're now seeing an uptick in interest."
OpenAI has yet to respond to requests for comments on the matter.
Growing Optimism Around New Releases
Secondary market traders consulted by Business Insider highlighted that OpenAI's recent model launches and the performance of Codex have rekindled interest among investors after a period dominated by Anthropic's momentum.
In June, OpenAI presented its flagship GPT-5.6 Sol model, which was more widely released this month alongside GPT-5.6 Terra and the budget-friendly GPT-5.6 Luna. Independent evaluations have positioned GPT-5.6 Sol among the leading models, though it still trails behind Claude's latest offerings, Mythos and Fable.
Adam Crawley, cofounder of Augment—an exchange for pre-IPO tech firms—reported, "Investors are returning to OpenAI."
Mark Klein, CEO of Neostellar, which provides access to late-stage startup investments, expressed optimism following an announcement from an OpenAI executive that the company has reached 9 million active users across two of its flagship platforms: Codex, designed for complex software coding tasks, and ChatGPT Work, a newly introduced cloud-based AI assistant that manages multi-step professional workflows.
Klein remarked, "The speed of this growth is significant, indicating that agentic AI is moving beyond its initial developer-focused audience into a wider array of professional applications. More generally, OpenAI seems to be dedicated to leveraging ongoing model enhancements to drive sustained usage in coding, research, and knowledge work."
OpenAI Offers Perceived Value
Previously, Anthropic had been recognized as the more affordable option, consistently trading at a lower valuation than OpenAI. But with the current market dynamics shifting, some investors now find it logical to hedge their Anthropic investments by incorporating the relatively less expensive OpenAI shares.
As reported recently by Business Insider, Anthropic's valuation ballooned to $1.2 trillion in the secondary market. Meanwhile, OpenAI's valuation has risen to $933 billion, reflecting a 20% increase over the past three months, according to Caplight, a secondary trading platform.
OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, acknowledged the company's challenges in recent times, attributing much of the responsibility to himself while indicating that a turnaround is on the horizon.
“We did not have our best last 12 months ever, and that’s mostly my fault, but we are on the brink of having our best 12 months to date," he shared on X.
Coinciding with Altman's comments, the Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI unveiled Kimi K3, claiming it to be the largest open-weight AI system globally.
McClure warned, “There continues to be pressure from other Chinese and open-source competitors, which may impact OpenAI's growth and profit margins, presenting significant challenges ahead.”
