Anthropic trims unauthorized share platform list after investor backlash, raises $65B at $965B valuation

At a glance:

• Anthropic reduced its unauthorized secondary market platforms from eight to four, removing Hiive and others after market chaos.
• The company raised $65B in funding at a $965B valuation, surpassing OpenAI for the first time.
• The move highlights tensions between secondary market liquidity and pre-IPO governance control.

What happened

Anthropic updated its warning about unauthorized secondary market platforms selling its shares, cutting the list from eight firms to four. The revised version names only Open Door Partners, Unicorns Exchange, Pachamama, and Upmarket. Several of the most prominent names in private market trading, including Hiive, were removed. The original notice, published earlier this month, stated that any sale or transfer of Anthropic stock by the named platforms was void and would not be recognised on the company’s books. The warning applied to both preferred and common stock. It was the first time a major AI company had publicly named specific platforms as unauthorized.

The result was chaos. Publicly traded funds that marketed exposure to Anthropic shares plunged. Private brokers scrambled to reassess positions. Investors who had purchased Anthropic stock through the named platforms were suddenly unsure whether their shares had any legal standing. Sim Desai, CEO of Hiive, pushed back publicly on LinkedIn. He wrote that his platform does not facilitate share transfers “without the company’s approval.” After Hiive’s name was removed, Desai wrote that the original post had caused confusion among investors and damage to his company’s reputation.

Why it matters

Both Anthropic and OpenAI have long included transfer restrictions in their shareholder agreements. The fine print was widely overlooked by buyers eager to gain exposure to pre-IPO AI companies. Anthropic’s decision to publicly name specific platforms turned boilerplate legal language into a market-moving event. Anthropic shares were already trading at an implied $1 trillion on secondary markets in April, driven by revenue acceleration from $9 billion to $30 billion ARR in one quarter. The demand for Anthropic stock has been so intense that sellers were naming prices at $1.15 trillion implied valuations. The unauthorized platform warning hit a market that was already overheated.

The timing of the walkback is notable. On Thursday, Anthropic announced a $65 billion funding round that valued the company at $965 billion including the new investment. That valuation eclipses rival OpenAI for the first time. The company is simultaneously raising the largest private funding round in history and fighting over who is allowed to sell its shares. The $965 billion valuation represents a staggering trajectory. Anthropic closed its Series G at $380 billion in February. Three months later, secondary markets priced it at $1 trillion. The primary round at $965 billion sits between those two figures, validating the secondary market pricing that the unauthorized platform warning was designed to suppress.

The contradiction at play

The contradiction is structural. Anthropic needs secondary market liquidity to attract and retain employees whose compensation includes equity. It also needs to control who trades its shares to maintain governance, comply with securities regulations, and manage its cap table ahead of a potential IPO. The original warning overshot on control and caused collateral damage to legitimate platforms. Anthropic is in early IPO talks with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley, with a listing as early as October. Managing the secondary market is a prerequisite for a clean public offering. But naming and shaming platforms without prior contact, then quietly removing half the list after the backlash, is not the approach of a company that has its pre-IPO communications strategy under control.

What comes next

Anthropic did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment. The four platforms that remain on the list, Open Door Partners, Unicorns Exchange, Pachamama, and Upmarket, have not publicly responded. The investors who bought shares through the removed platforms now have clarity. Those who bought through the four that remain do not. The episode underscores the growing pains of private market infrastructure as AI valuations surge. For investors, the lesson is clear: due diligence on secondary platforms is now non-negotiable. For Anthropic, the challenge is balancing market enthusiasm with regulatory and governance realities ahead of its anticipated public debut.