Anthropic Initiates Historic $6 Billion Secondary Sale for Employees
SAN FRANCISCO, February 24, 2026 — In one of the largest private liquidity events in tech history, AI heavyweight Anthropic has launched a secondary share sale that allows current and former employees to sell their equity at a staggering $350 billion valuation.
The move is designed to provide long-term staffers a way to “cash out” following the company’s meteoric rise, while keeping the firm private for longer amid an intensifying global war for AI talent.
The $350 Billion Benchmark
The sale, which was first reported by Bloomberg earlier this week, has seen Anthropic line up between $5 billion and $6 billion in commitments from outside investors.
- Strategic Pricing: While the secondary sale is being facilitated at a $350 billion valuation, this actually represents a slight discount to Anthropic’s most recent primary funding round. On February 12, 2026, the company closed a $30 billion Series G led by GIC and Coatue, which valued the company at $380 billion post-money.
- Investor Appetite: Outside institutional investors—not Anthropic itself—are purchasing the shares. The massive demand for the sale highlights the insatiable appetite for “Blue Chip” AI equity, even at valuations that now dwarf many of the world’s largest legacy tech firms.
A “Retention Play” in the AI Talent War
The deal is specifically open to current and former employees who have been with the company for at least 12 months. By allowing staff to liquidate their ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans), Anthropic is addressing a key challenge for “decacorns”: how to reward early engineers without a public listing.
- Competing with OpenAI: This move mirrors similar secondary sales by OpenAI, which facilitated a $6.6 billion sale at a $500 billion valuation last year.
- Wealth Creation: For early Anthropic employees, many of whom joined during the company’s 2021 founding, this sale represents a life-changing liquidity event, potentially creating hundreds of new “AI millionaires.”
Financial Context: The $14 Billion Run-Rate
The valuation surge is backed by explosive revenue growth. Earlier this month, CFO Krishna Rao confirmed that Anthropic has reached an annualized revenue run rate of $14 billion—a 10x increase from the $1 billion reported just 14 months ago.
The company’s growth is being driven largely by Claude Code, its agentic coding tool, which alone has reached a $2.5 billion run rate. Anthropic now counts eight of the Fortune 10 as customers and has significantly reduced its “cash burn,” aiming for break-even by 2028.
The Road to IPO
While the secondary sale provides a “bridge” for employees, it hasn’t cooled rumors of a public debut. Industry analysts suggest that by clearing out employee equity pressure now, Anthropic is setting the stage for a potential late 2026 or early 2027 IPO. The recent appointment of former Microsoft and GM CFO Chris Liddell to the board further signals that the company is professionalizing its governance for a public market transition.
