AI firms Anthropic and OpenAI have issued comprehensive warnings against unauthorized share trading, with Anthropic specifically naming eight firms selling its shares without authorization. According to reports from The Economic Times and Bloomberg, both companies updated their stock transfer policies on Tuesday, declaring that any sale or transfer of shares without board of directors approval is 'void' - not voidable, not disputed, void. Anthropic had previously warned investors about 'stock scams' issuing fraudulent share certificates in the private artificial intelligence developer. The company's support page now states explicitly: 'Any sale or transfer of Anthropic stock, or any interest in Anthropic stock, offered by these firms is void and will not be recognized on our books and records.'
The warning comes as Anthropic is in early talks with investors to raise at least $30 billion in fresh financing, setting the stage for what could be its largest funding round yet, according to Bloomberg News. This development follows the company's recent discussions about a funding round that could value it above $300 billion, after a recent $183 billion valuation. The creator of Claude is one of the most coveted companies in the booming, largely unregulated market, with secondary markets increasingly offering pre-IPO exposure to the AI firm.
Both companies specifically warned against new offerings from prominent secondary platforms Hiive and Forge Global, as reported by TechCrunch and Bloomberg. Anthropic also named Sydecar, Open Door Partners, Lionheart Ventures, UpMarket, Unicorns Exchange and Pachamama as unauthorized sellers. Forge Global is notably on the naughty list, despite being a regulated secondary marketplace where accredited investors trade shares in private companies. According to Decrypt, Anthropic's implied valuation on Forge had hit roughly $1 trillion, overtaking OpenAI's $880 billion on the same platform, a figure Forge CEO Kelly Rodriques confirmed.
A Hiive spokesperson stated the firm 'invested heavily in legal, compliance, and diligence infrastructure from the beginning, and all share transfers facilitated by Hiive are approved by the issuer,' as reported by TechCrunch and Bloomberg. Sydecar representative confirmed the platform requires sponsors to attest that they have reviewed relevant documents relating to share transferability and needs consent from companies providing shares. Unicorns Exchange managing partner Idan Miller stated his firm stopped offering Anthropic shares after the blog post, hoping the company will reconsider. Forge Global claimed to have been included erroneously and is working with Anthropic to remove its name from the alert, emphasizing that Forge does not facilitate transactions in any private company's shares without explicit approval.
According to The Economic Times, both companies have been particularly stringent about secondary markets and prohibit the use of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) - financing tools that let investors pool capital to participate in funding rounds or purchase shares. The problem lies in 'multiple layers of SPVs that create multiple layers of management fees,' as described by PitchBook analyst Emily Zheng, where each layer charges its own fees and makes it harder to verify whether the underlying shares were legitimately acquired. In its updated statement, Anthropic cautioned investors against accepting unsolicited offers for shares or requests to pay using cryptocurrencies, adding that anyone sending an Anthropic stock certificate to the general public is 'very likely engaged in fraud.'
