As the AI race reaches a fever pitch, OpenAI is facing the dual pressures of a cooling secondary market and intensifying competition, with its series of response measures sparking questions about its strategic direction.
According to media reports on Tuesday, OpenAI shares have significantly lost their appeal in the secondary market. The founder of Next Round Capital revealed that in recent weeks, about six institutional investors have sought to sell approximately $600 million worth of OpenAI shares; whereas these shares were typically snapped up within days last year, they now find almost no takers.
Meanwhile, Anthropic’s valuation in the secondary market is trading at a premium of over 50% compared to its previous funding round, as capital accelerates toward OpenAI's primary competitor.
Just as secondary market demand is cooling, OpenAI announced it would acquire the tech podcast TBPN for approximately $250 million and lower ChatGPT subscription prices in an attempt to bolster its growth narrative. However, these moves have failed to fully stabilize market confidence and have instead sparked widespread debate over whether OpenAI’s strategic focus has shifted.
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<h2>Secondary Market &#34;Fire and Ice&#34;: OpenAI Cools While Anthropic Gains a Premium</h2>
Capital flows in the secondary market are providing a real-time thermometer for the AI race.
According to the founder of Next Round Capital, the current bid valuation for OpenAI in the market is approximately $765 billion, a discount of about 10% from its previous peak valuation of $850 billion.
In contrast, Anthropic's secondary market bid valuation has risen to approximately $600 billion, more than 50% higher than its previous funding round valuation. OpenAI stated that it does not recognize or participate in these secondary market transactions.
It is noteworthy that during the same period, investors formally committed to injecting $122 billion into OpenAI, corresponding to a valuation (including financing) of $852 billion. This indicates a significant valuation divergence between the primary and secondary markets—institutional investors are still willing to pay a high premium in the primary market, but in the more liquid secondary market, sellers are struggling to find buyers.
<h2>Podcast Acquisition: PR Salvage or Strategic &#34;Misstep&#34;?</h2>
OpenAI's decision to acquire TBPN reflects the company's deep anxiety over its public relations crises.
According to The Information, the deal was driven by Fidji Simo, CEO of OpenAI's AGI deployment business. TBPN is a daily live-streamed tech podcast hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays, described in the industry as the &#34;SportsCenter of tech.&#34; Following the acquisition, the two hosts will retain full creative control and editorial independence, and the show’s format will remain unchanged, though it will receive more resource support.
According to people familiar with the matter, Simo conceived this idea against a backdrop of consecutive PR blunders by OpenAI in recent months—including an inadequate response to a lawsuit alleging that ChatGPT induced user self-harm, and CEO Sam Altman's comment on a late-night talk show that he &#34;didn't know how to raise kids without ChatGPT,&#34; which drew criticism both internally and externally. In an internal memo, Simo wrote: &#34;The standard communications playbook doesn't apply to us. We are not a normal company.&#34;
However, the timing of the deal is delicate. Shortly before the acquisition was announced, Simo had warned employees at an all-hands meeting that OpenAI could no longer pursue distracting &#34;side quests&#34; and subsequently halted the video generation tool Sora. Some OpenAI employees initially thought the TBPN acquisition was a belated April Fool's joke. AI researcher Gary Marcus was blunt in his criticism on social media, stating that OpenAI is &#34;spending $250 million on a tech podcast that’s been on the air for 18 months, presumably to control the narrative.&#34;
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<h2>Price Cuts for Expansion: Offsetting Competitive Pressure with Scale</h2>
Alongside the TBPN acquisition, OpenAI is accelerating the expansion of its consumer-side scale.
OpenAI is rolling out its low-cost subscription plan, ChatGPT Go, to more countries. Priced at approximately $8 per month in the U.S.—a roughly 60% discount compared to the $20 ChatGPT Plus plan—it offers expanded access to GPT-5.3, higher message limits, more file upload features, image generation, and longer memory retention.
Behind this pricing strategy lies the rapid rise of Anthropic's coding tool, Claude Code, among developers, which is narrowing the revenue gap with OpenAI. OpenAI still needs to compete head-on with Anthropic in both advertising monetization and AI programming; whether these two businesses can truly scale will be the key metric for testing the effectiveness of Simo's strategy.

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OpenAI is facing mounting pressure: its shares are being ignored in the secondary market, with valuations at a 10% discount from their peak, while rival Anthropic sees a secondary market premium of over 50%. In response, OpenAI has spent $250 million to acquire the tech podcast TBPN and significantly slashed subscription prices to regain momentum—but are these moves a strategic pivot or a sign of desperation?

- OpenAI faces dual pressures from a cooling secondary market and increasing competition, questioning its strategic direction.  
- Despite a recent $250 million acquisition of tech podcast TBPN and a reduced ChatGPT subscription price, confidence in OpenAI's market position remains challenged, with its valuation dropping to $765 billion.  
- Concurrently, Anthropic's market valuation surged by over 50%, highlighting a stark contrast in investor sentiment amid significant discrepancies between primary and secondary market valuations.

Anthropic "Riding High," While OpenAI "Loses Its Form"?