A Bloomberg report recently said that demand for shares of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI has decreased on the secondary market. The report quoted Next Round Capital founder Ken Smythe who said “We literally couldn’t find anyone in our pool of hundreds of institutional investors to take these shares” adding “buyers have indicated they have $2 billion of cash ready to deploy into Anthropic”. Elon Musk, who has been in a public feud with OpenAI responded to the report saying “Not surprising”.Notably, both Anthropic and OpenAI don’t allow investors to trade shares on the secondary market without their permission. However, access to the shares is available on many platforms as investors sell their interests through other mechanisms such as special-purpose vehicles.The Bloomberg report comes after OpenAI announced to raise $122 billion in backing from tech giants, venture capital funds and retail investors alike, marking what is being called the company’s “largest-ever fundraising”.

Investors reportedly looking to sell OpenAI shares

According to the Bloomberg report, about a half-dozen institutional investors, including hedge funds and venture capital firms that hold large stakes have approached Next Round Capital in recent weeks looking to sell about $600 million of OpenAI shares. It states that demand for shares of rival AI company Anthropic have seen record demand recently on other marketplaces including Augment and Hiive. The large gap between OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation and Anthropic’s $380 billion has investors rushing to grab equity in the latter before it rises, Augment co-founder Adam Crawley told the publication.“It’s just better risk-reward right now,” he said adding “People are betting that Anthropic’s valuation will catch up with OpenAI’s. But if you buy OpenAI shares, it’s less clear what the return will be in the near term.”Banks including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are offering OpenAI shares to wealthy clients without charging carry fees, the report said, quoting a person familiar with the matter. For Anthropic, Goldman is reportedly charging its usual carry for clients interested in the Claude-maker. “That fee is often roughly 15% to 20% of profits,” it said.