OpenAI is reportedly seeing renewed investor demand in private secondary markets after months of losing momentum, although Anthropic continues to attract the strongest interest.

OpenAI Regains Momentum In Secondary Markets

Investor sentiment toward OpenAI has improved over the past month after the company launched its GPT-5.6 family of AI models and gained traction with Codex, its AI coding agent, Business Insider reported on Sunday.

Private market investors buy shares from employees and early backers because neither OpenAI nor Anthropic is publicly traded.

Those transactions take place in fragmented secondary markets, where valuations are estimates rather than continuously traded market prices.

Dave McClure, founder and managing partner at Practical Venture Capital, told the publication OpenAI has seen a “resurgence” in investor interest after a difficult start to the year.

Earlier in 2026, concerns over slowing growth, executive departures, Anthropic’s rapid progress and Elon Musk’s lawsuit weighed on demand for OpenAI shares.

Even with the rebound, Anthropic remains the preferred AI investment.

Glen Anderson, CEO of Rainmaker Securities, said buyer demand still favors Anthropic by roughly five buyers for every two seeking OpenAI shares, though OpenAI is now being “bid” on far more frequently than a month ago.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comments.

GPT-5.6, Codex Drive Investor Confidence

Several secondary market participants cited OpenAI’s recent product launches as the key catalyst behind the renewed interest.

The company previewed GPT-5.6 Sol in June before expanding availability this month alongside GPT-5.6 Terra and the lower-cost GPT-5.6 Luna.

While independent benchmarks rank GPT-5.6 Sol among the industry’s top models, Anthropic’s latest Mythos and Fable models still lead some evaluations.

Mark Klein, CEO of Neostellar, pointed to OpenAI’s disclosure that Codex and ChatGPT Work have reached 9 million active users.

Anthropic Still Commands Higher Valuation

Anthropic is currently valued at about $1.2 trillion in secondary markets, while OpenAI is valued at approximately $933 billion, up about 20% over the past three months, according to Caplight data cited by the report.

Some investors view OpenAI as the more attractive value play, though McClure cautioned that competition from Anthropic, Chinese AI startups and open-source models could continue to pressure the company’s growth and margins.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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