Claude-maker Anthropic has scaled back its warning regarding secondary-market trading of its shares, reducing the number of platforms it identified as unauthorised from eight to four. The revision came after the original notice sparked concern among investors and prompted a strong response from one of the firms mentioned, according to Bloomberg.
In its initial blog post, Anthropic listed eight companies that it said were facilitating the purchase or sale of its shares without approval and in breach of the company’s transfer restrictions. The firm warned that any such transactions would be considered invalid and would not be recorded in its shareholder register. The restriction applied to both common and preferred shares.
However, the updated blog post now names only four platforms — Open Door Partners, Unicorns Exchange, Pachamama and Upmarket. Several well-known participants in the private-share trading market that had appeared in the earlier version have since been removed from the list.
“We are aware of individuals or investment firms purportedly offering access to Anthropic financing rounds, or offering to purchase your Anthropic shares in violation of our transfer restrictions. To be clear, the following firms are not authorized to buy or sell Anthropic shares: Open Door Partners, Unicorns Exchange, Pachamama and Upmarket 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,” it mentioned.
Anthropic’s notice sparked confusion and concern among investors, highlighting restrictions on unauthorised share transactions that both the company and rival OpenAI have long maintained. While such restrictions were often overlooked by investors eager to gain exposure to fast-growing AI firms, the situation escalated when Anthropic took the uncommon step of publicly identifying specific trading platforms.
The announcement led to a decline in the value of publicly traded funds offering exposure to Anthropic, while participants in the private-share market faced significant disruption.
Hiive CEO slams Anthropic’s approach
Hiive, one of the platforms initially named in Anthropic’s warning, pushed back against the allegations. Two weeks ago, Hiive chief executive Sim Desai took to LinkedIn and said that his platform does not enable share transfers “without the company’s approval”.
After Hiive was removed from the updated list, Desai said the original warning had created uncertainty among investors and harmed the company’s reputation.
He stated, “Had Anthropic approached us before their aggressive new stance and corresponding public statements (they did not), we would have gladly worked with them to deliver a unified message to the market.”
Anthropic did not immediately comment on the matter.
The disagreement comes at a time of intense investor interest in Anthropic. On Thursday, the company announced a new funding round that raised $65 billion and valued the AI startup at $965 billion, including the fresh capital. The valuation surpassed that of OpenAI for the first time, underscoring Anthropic’s rapid rise in the artificial intelligence sector.
(With inputs from agency)
