Several billion dollars in OpenAI shares went unclaimed in the secondary market, with $20 billion in cash reserves waiting to be invested by Anthropic.

As investors rapidly shift their focus to their biggest competitor Anthropic, OpenAI's shares are no longer in demand in the private secondary market, and in some cases are almost difficult to sell. Despite OpenAI's efforts to raise billions of dollars in recent months, Ken Smythe, founder of Next Round Capital, says that demand for shares of this artificial intelligence giant is declining on his secondary market trading platform. In recent weeks, about six institutional investors - including hedge funds and venture capital firms holding a significant amount of shares - have contacted his company, hoping to sell about $600 million worth of OpenAI shares. In the past year, these shares would have been snapped up in a matter of days. However, now there are no takers. "We cannot find anyone in the pool of hundreds of institutional investors willing to take over these shares," Smythe said, noting that his company has handled $2.5 billion in transactions. Meanwhile, "buyers have indicated they have $20 billion in cash ready to invest in Anthropic."