Anthropic and OpenAI warn buyers: Stocks of unauthorized AI startups may be worthless

Both Anthropic and OpenAI updated their stock transfer policies on Tuesday, and the message is the same: If you buy shares through an unauthorized channel, you may not actually own anything other than an expensive piece of paper.

Anthropic Updated page It says any sale or transfer of its shares without board approval is “void” – irrevocable, indisputable, void. The buyer will not be recognized as a shareholder and will not have any rights.

OpenAI statement From today it uses almost identical language: any transfer without written consent is void, and “the sale will not be recognized and will have no economic value to you.”

Both companies have identified the same list of targets: direct sales, special purpose vehicles (SPV), token interests, and futures contracts.

What is SPV and why does it matter?

An SPV is a shell company created for one purpose. In this case, holding shares in a private company and pooling outside funds around it. Since direct transfers require company approval, SPACs have become the standard solution: the company buys the stock, and you buy into the company.

The problem is the classes. PitchBook analyst Emily Cheng described They are “multiple layers of SPACs that create multiple layers of management fees,” overlapping structures where each layer charges its own fees and make it difficult to verify whether the underlying shares have been legitimately acquired.

Under Tuesday’s statements, if the original transfer to any SPV lacks board approval, the entire series is void.

Anthropic went further than OpenAI and published a specific ban list: Open Door Partners, Unicorns Exchange, Pachamama, Lionheart Ventures, Sidecar, Upmarket — and new offerings on Global formulation and Hiivewhich are two of the most established private equity markets in the secondary market.

Note that according to Anthropic’s statement, these offers are void, irrevocable, and subject to conditions. In other words, this is a warning that its lack of value has already been established before the moment the negotiations take place, not after, so there is essentially no legal protection, at least not with regard to the nature of what is being traded.

Wait — is Forge Global on the list?

Yes, Forge Global is on the naughty list, and this is the part that reshapes everything. Forge Global is not a gray market scheme. It is a regulated secondary market where accredited investors trade shares in private companies. like Decryption I mentioned Last month, Anthropic’s implied valuation on Forge reached nearly $1 trillion, surpassing OpenAI’s $880 billion valuation on the same platform, a figure confirmed by Forge CEO Kelly Rodricks.

Anthropic’s statement does not draw a line between gray market operators and regulated platforms. Any transfer without the approval of the Board of Directors is considered void, regardless of where it occurs. This leaves Forge and Hiive buyers facing the same uncertainty as PreStocks holders.

The market’s reaction was immediate. the Anthropic The token on PreStocks, a platform backed by Solana-based SPV, fell from $1,400 to $900 following Anthropic’s announcement, according to Coingecko. Equivalent to OpenAI It performed even worse, dropping from $1,400 to $900 within 24 hours.

So how did 600 OpenAI employees manage to sell $6.6 billion worth of stock?

For those who don’t like the strange and complicated world of finance, this may be an obvious question, and the answer is the bottom line.

In October 2025, OpenAI filed a board-authorized tender offer – in which current and former employees sold the acquired shares to institutional buyers including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer, T. Rowe Price. More than 600 people participated, each worth $30 million.

OpenAI curates, discloses, and approves every transfer.

This is what the two companies advocate, not what they target. A secondary sale where the company controls who makes the purchase and signs off on the transfer is legal. The campaign is about everything that goes beyond this step, like layered SPACs, avatar shells, and platform lists that no one has approved.

Where Does Robinhood Fund Fit In?

Three weeks ago, Robinhood Ventures Fund I Announce It purchased $75 million of OpenAI common stock, giving retail investors exposure through a closed-end fund listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

This is a more regulated wrapper than a cold SPV — but Robinhood’s product page reveals that RVI “obtains exposure either through direct investment in a company or via one or more special purpose vehicles.” As of today, there is no public statement from OpenAI confirming its approval of the transfer on April 17.

Robinhood and OpenAI had a public dispute last year over unauthorized OpenAI token shares that were dropped by European users. Whether the latest $75 million purchase has received written approval from OpenAI — the only thing that makes the transfer valid under Tuesday’s policies — has not been confirmed by either company.

So the question shouldn’t be “Is this a regulated platform?” But something like “Has the company agreed to this specific transfer in writing?”

That’s a difficult question to answer, and both Anthropic and OpenAI made clear on Tuesday that they intend to implement it.

It’s easy to understand the demand that makes all this mess when you follow the money. Anthropic’s annual revenue jumped from $9 billion at the end of 2025 to $30 billion by April 2026, a 233% increase in one quarter, driven largely by CloudCode — along with Amazon. committed To invest up to $25 billion in the company. With such growth rates, investors who cannot enter through official channels will continue to look for side doors.

On Tuesday, both companies closed those doors and, in Anthropic’s case, published a list of the ones they found open.