Anthropic opens $6B employee share sale at $350B valuation
What's the story
Anthropic has announced a secondary share sale for its current and former employees. The move comes at a valuation of around $350 billion, allowing staff to cash in on their holdings. The company has set aside between $5 billion and $6 billion for this purpose, depending on how many eligible employees choose to sell their shares.
Funding insights
Details of the share sale deal
Anthropic's latest funding round, completed earlier this month, valued the company at a post-money valuation of $380 billion. The share sale deal will be with outside investors and not Anthropic itself. It is open to employees who have worked at the company for a minimum of 12 months. This strategy has become increasingly popular among startups as a way to provide liquidity to their employees without going through an acquisition or IPO process.
Market trend
Secondary share sales becoming trend in AI sector
The secondary share sale strategy has gained traction in the competitive AI talent market, with several high-growth companies remaining private for longer. Stripe and SpaceX are among those who have allowed their employees to sell shares. Anthropic's main competitor, OpenAI, has also conducted regular secondary transactions, including a massive $6.6 billion share sale at a $500 billion valuation last year.