I traded San Francisco's startup scene for a quieter life in Buenos Aires. It's helped me build a family.

Koby Conrad said that San Francisco was "really good for early-career humans."

Caroline Tran/Selina Pan Photography

• Koby Conrad moved from San Francisco to Buenos Aires to build a family.
• "I love the food, I love the culture, and I love the fact that my rent is 10x cheaper," he told Business Insider.
• Conrad founded Sunflower, an AI sobriety companion. He said that he's more "locked in" in Buenos Aires.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Koby Conrad, the 32-year-old founder of Sunflower, an AI companion for sobriety. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I'm originally from Boise, Idaho, and didn't even realize tech was a thing. My little brother convinced me to move to San Francisco when I was 26.

At the time, I had this 2,000-square-foot house, and my mortgage was like $900 a month. In San Francisco, I moved in with nine roommates, where I was paying $1,600 for this tiny little room.

My little brother applied to Y Combinator, which I had never heard of, and he put me down as his cofounder. That's how I got into YC: Quit your job, move to SF, and six weeks later you get in. Classic.

I love San Francisco. It's one of the most gorgeous cities on the face of the planet. You're surrounded by nature, really smart people, and some of the best food.

Being in SF is like peaking over the edge of the universe and seeing what's coming next. That's my biggest fear about not being in San Francisco: the world's going to move, and I'm going to be behind.

The flip side of that is, if you're in SF, you're around a specific type of person all the time. Highly technical humans who work at tech companies is 90% of the circle. I think it's really good for early-career humans.

I'm loving Buenos Aires — and locked in

Leaving a city is like breaking up with an ex. You want someone better after, and you never want to downgrade. I asked, "How do I find a city that is better than SF?"

I had two options: New York or Buenos Aires. I spent a bunch of time in both, but ultimately I decided that I really like Buenos Aires.

The US does a really good job of romanticizing Europe and Asia, but we never think of Latin America. At my old company, Rupa Health, we would do our off-sites in Mexico and Costa Rica. We had a bunch of fun.

My brain really likes learning things. Learning a second language and being in an environment where everything is new is super stimulating for my mind.

I love the food, I love the culture, and I love the fact that my rent is 10x cheaper. In SF, if I'm making $300,000, I'm still stressed about money. Here, you can make $100,000 and think: "Cool, I'm set for the rest of my world."

The problem is that some parts of Latin America are dangerous. I was in Medellín for a bit and almost got kidnapped while walking up to the airplane.

Argentina is one of the safest places in Latin America. Buenos Aires is the safest city across multiple dimensions. There are people walking their kids in strollers. You don't have the earthquake fear. The cops are amazing here and won't shake you down. Argentines are amazingly friendly.

I've been coming in and out of the country every three months. Not being in SF means I travel to it frequently. I am applying for my nomad visa, though.

I'm super happy here. I'm about to have a baby, my girlfriend is here, and we're about to get a gorgeous office space. Technical talent will be in SF and New York, but the go-to-market team will be in Buenos Aires.

I'm super locked in here. When I go to San Francisco, it's like: here's a poker game, here's a founder dinner party, here's an investor event you need to go to. When I'm in Argentina, I have nothing to do but work 24/7. I have a full-time house manager who feeds me and does my laundry to make sure there's nothing I have to do besides work. It's like living under a rock.

There's a reason I moved 10,000 kilometers away. I'm not a very social creature. I'm a nerd who used to play a bunch of "RuneScape" and "World of Warcraft." For me, tech startups are an extension of that.

It's difficult to have kids in San Francisco

It's really hard to be able to have a house or apartment that's big enough to have a baby in San Francisco. You either need a spouse that doesn't work or you need to be able to hire childcare.

As a founder, I have employees who are pregnant, and they're going to have three months of maternity leave. I can't have three months of leave. I'm going to be out of the office for two weeks for the first time in six years; that's my leave.

To do my job and have kids, I have to be able to sleep and take care of them during the day. That's on top of having an extra bedroom. It would cost me half a million dollars to be able to afford that lifestyle in San Francisco.

Some of the most ambitious founders I've met haven't been in SF. Our ambitions should include kids and family. That's the reason most people want to have a $10 million outcome. I want to build massive things, have kids, and leave it all to them. That is a major drive for me.

People give up so much by being in those cities. The opportunity cost is crazy. If you're a founder and want to have a family, you basically have to be already exited.

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I couldn't make my restaurant's numbers work. So I took prices off the menu.

The Post Modern Times uses work from local artists on its merch.

Dylan Alverson

• Dylan Alverson transformed his Minneapolis eatery into a pay-what-you-can restaurant model.
• Post Modern Times serves 155 meals daily, 90% of which are served without a donation.
• Alverson said business is better now, and donations allow staff to earn at least $25 an hour.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dylan Alverson, 45, who owns Post Modern Times, a pay-what-you-can restaurant in Minneapolis. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I started working in restaurants when I was 14 in northern Wisconsin.

My parents had moved there from the coasts to live on a self-sustaining property, so I grew up raising food, helping my mom cook, and developing an appreciation for ingredients long before I thought about restaurants as a career.

For years, cooking was what allowed me to travel. I worked everywhere from casual diners to acclaimed restaurants, never thinking I'd eventually own one.

That changed after I worked at a worker-owned restaurant in Minneapolis. Because everyone shared responsibility, I learned every side of the business. I started thinking, "If I ever opened my own place, here's what I'd do differently."

At 24, I moved to Seattle and, with a business partner, scraped together about $12,000 to open a café. I was living in the restaurant's storage room when I found out I was about to become a father.

Eventually, I realized I couldn't run the restaurant and be the kind of parent I wanted to be. I left.

A few years later, while working at a struggling bicycle shop, the owner offered to sell me the business for $1. It was easier to offload it at a loss than try to sell it. I turned it around during the recession, sold it a few years later, and moved back to Minneapolis.

Almost immediately, I stumbled upon the space that would become Modern Times. I signed the lease the same day.

From the beginning, I wanted it to reflect the neighborhood. I wrote all the recipes, sourced local food, turned part of the building into artist studios, and tried to create what people now call a "third place" — somewhere neighbors could gather, not just eat.

Diners at the Post Modern Times restaurant enjoy hot, home-cooked meals at pay-what-you-can prices.

Dylan Alverson

The restaurant grew steadily. By the year before this latest transition, annual sales had reached about $1.3 million.

Then everything changed.

The pandemic, inflation, and rising labor costs completely rewrote the economics of running an independent restaurant. Even though we were busy, I couldn't find a sustainable profit margin. I was working 7 shifts a week, fixing equipment myself, carrying flour up the stairs until I developed hip problems, and sometimes borrowing money to make payroll.

I wasn't the only one. Every restaurant owner I talked to was dealing with the same math.

Late last year, after federal immigration raids shook our neighborhood, we started offering free meals with help from a local grant. I noticed something immediately: People who needed food often wouldn't ask for it.

Then Alex Pretti, our neighbor, was killed during an immigration operation. Our community was reeling, and everyone was angry, so we took prices off the menu as part of a tax strike — we weren't charging for meals and therefore weren't generating sales tax.

It was a way to fight back and also provide comfort to our neighborhood, so anyone could get a hot meal if they needed one.

After seeing the spark of hope that change caused, we haven't gone back. People can now pay whatever they can afford. Or nothing at all.

The response surprised me

Supporters donated about half a million dollars over the winter after our story spread online. Four months later, we're still operating without menu prices.

We're serving about 155 meals a day. Around 90% of those meals aren't accompanied by a donation.

We're not trying to maximize profits anymore. We're trying to build a restaurant that's financially sustainable, pays staff a living wage, and ensures anyone in the neighborhood can eat.

Ironically, we're in a better financial position than we were before.

For the first time in years, I've been able to pay myself about $50,000 annually, and we're paying employees $25 an hour, with the goal of reaching $30 an hour.

We're still figuring it out. We've added guidelines to ensure the space remains welcoming for everyone, and we're constantly adjusting how we distribute meals to serve as many people as possible.

I don't pretend this is a finished model, but I do think restaurant owners need to stop pretending everything is fine.

Small business owners carry a lot of shame when things aren't working. I think we need to be more honest with each other. The traditional model isn't working for a lot of independent restaurants anymore.

If we want neighborhood businesses to survive, we have to be willing to imagine something different. And if we figure it out, I don't want to keep it to myself. I'd give the model away. That's the whole point.

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Ford's $30,000 EV truck is under wraps. Its camouflage is an ad.

Ford's all-important EV pickup truck has donned camouflage during public outings. The sneaky attire includes a QR for a hidden website landing page.

Ford

• Ford's EV truck has been wearing camo during public testing.
• That outfit had a QR code which brings curious onlookers to a product announcement site.
• Ford's truck is the start to the company's next big EV bet.

Ford has been camouflaging its coming $30,000 EV pickup during public testing. Turns out, the going-out attire is intentionally revealing.

Photos and videos of the disguised truck have circulated widely online in recent weeks. And some of Ford's wraps have obscured the truck's body lines with a jumble of dogs, sailboats, soccer balls, heart emojis — and tiny QR codes.

Scanning one sends curious onlookers to an official Ford webpage that declares, "Congrats, You Spotted a Unicorn." There, the automaker shows clearer footage of the pickup undergoing snow testing and moving through production, while inviting visitors to sign up for updates.

"Chances are, you saw something on the road that piqued your interest, and you're here because you're curious," Alan Clarke, Ford's vice president of advanced development projects, says in a video at the top of the site. "This website will be your exclusive insight into our progress."

The camouflage is doing two jobs at once: concealing the big-bet truck's final shape and helping Ford build an audience before it officially pulls back the covers.

An EV recharge

Ford discontinued the all-electric F-150 Lightning after sales never reached the company's 150,000 unit-per-year goal.

Scott Olson/Getty Images

There is plenty riding on the truck underneath.

The so-far unnamed EV (though rumors and patent applications suggest Ford may be resurrecting the Ranchero nameplate) is scheduled to reach customers next year. It's a big reset for the legendary automaker.

Around 2020, Ford had high hopes for its first generation of mass-market EVs, including the F-150 Lightning, a full-size electric pickup that started at mid-$50,000. Ahead of its launch, Ford touted nearly 200,000 reservations and set a goal of eventually building 150,000 electric trucks a year.

Sales peaked in 2024 at 33,510 vehicles, falling far short of Ford's early ambitions. The automaker ended production of the original Lightning in late 2025 and recorded $19.5 billion in charges tied to its broader EV restructuring.

As its initial EV plans faltered, Ford assembled a roughly 350-person California skunkworks team led by Clarke to develop a cheaper and more efficient generation of electric vehicles, called the universal EV platform. The group focused on faster manufacturing, more aerodynamic designs, and dramatically fewer parts.

The camouflaged pickup will be the first test of that strategy. Ford says it can build up to eight different vehicles on the same battery infrastructure.

A tricky EV market with new contenders

Ford's EV comes as it tries to ward off Chinese EV-makers. Other American startups, like the Slate Truck pictured above, are entering the fray as well.

Ben Shimkus/Business Insider

Ford's lower-cost EV push is taking shape as a new crop of challengers reaches the US market.

Slate, a Jeff Bezos-backed startup, told Business Insider that the first units of its $24,950 electric pickup will reach customers this year. Fiat has also brought the sub-$15,000 Topolino to the US, although the tiny EV is closer to a golf cart than a daily driver.

And the greatest threat may be overseas.

BYD became the world's largest seller of battery-electric vehicles last year, reaffirming the pressure Chinese automakers are placing on established car companies. Ford CEO Jim Farley has repeatedly praised Chinese EVs for their technology, affordability, and build quality.

When Ford unveiled its Universal EV Platform in 2025, Farley framed the project as a response to competitors attacking the industry from several directions.

"We knew that the Chinese would be the major player for us globally, companies like BYD, new startups from around the world," he said in 2025. "Big technology has their ambition in the auto space. They're all coming for us, legacy automotive companies."

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The World Cup is turning Erling Haaland's style into big business

Erling Haaland is known for his style both on and off the pitch.

David Jensen/Getty Images, Vittorio Zunino Celotto/GC Images, Harry Langer/DeFodi Images/DeFodi via Getty Images

• Erling Haaland, who plays for Norway, is one of the most talked-about soccer players right now.
• The hair-tie brand Haaland has worn for years launched a sold-out partnership.
• His love of rare Hermès bags taps into menswear's growing embrace of traditionally feminine items.

The internet can't get enough of Erling Haaland.

The 6-foot-5, 25-year-old Norwegian striker has gained over 11 million followers on Instagram since Sunday, when he scored twice to secure Norway's victory against Brazil in the World Cup. While many of his new followers are clearly there for the football, others may well be there for the fashion and his quirky posts.

Haaland regularly posts his outfits on Instagram — $1,800 Loewe Tracksuit jackets, black Chanel cashmere beanies (selling on resale websites for over $1,200), and a constant flow of rare Hermès bags. And he's gained the attention of fashion editors for his style on and off the pitch, whether that's matching the hair ties on his blond man bun or being photographed at runway shows.

His star power is so great that Norway's national football jerseys have sold out ahead of the England vs Norway match on Saturday, the Norwegian Football Association told the BBC, and are now being resold on websites like StockX for over $400.

Brands are taking note.

"His brand value is already spiking during the tournament and is very likely to accelerate further after the World Cup," Scott Kerr, founder of luxury consultancy firm Silvertone Consulting, told Business Insider.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Erling Braut Haaland (@erling)

Sold-out hair tie collab

Fashion brands are starting to reap the rewards of Haaland's high visibility.

Kknekki, an Oslo-based hair tie brand that launched a limited-edition collection with Haaland to coincide with the World Cup, said the collection sold out within weeks of launch.

Haaland had worn Kknekki hair ties for several years before becoming an investor in the brand's parent company, Bon Dep, in 2024. The size of his stake has not been disclosed.

"The collaboration was a natural extension of a relationship that has developed over several years," a spokesperson for Bon Dep said. "The collection was intentionally produced as a highly limited edition and saw exceptional demand from launch," they added.

Bon Dep credits Haaland with boosting global awareness for the Kknekki brand.

When Kknekki posted a reel of the Haaland collaboration on Instagram, the account gained 4,000 new followers in a single day, according to the social media analytics website Social Blade.

While its core audience has traditionally been women and girls, Erling's long-standing use of hair ties has played a big role in attracting male customers to the brand, the spokesperson said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Norwegian (@flynorwegian)

"He's landing in a moment where menswear is getting more comfortable with 'traditionally feminine' luxury objects, and he's basically become a walking case study for that shift," Blanca Zugaza Escribano, a fashion and luxury strategy consultant at Metyis, told Business Insider.

Anja, a soccer fan from Germany, told Business Insider that she bought the Haaland-branded hair ties after seeing them on his Instagram.

"I've liked Haaland as a person and as a footballer since 2020," Anja said. "I'd seen it on his Instagram channel and ordered it straight away, as I have long hair too and wanted to give it a go."

A pack of 8 of these limited-edition hair ties costs £21 ($30). They have started to pop up on resale websites, with some sold on AliExpress for $90, though it's unclear whether these are genuine.

Haaland sometimes lets his hair loose during matches, a look that has become a favorite among soccer fans online.

Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images

Swapping sports bags for Birkins

Off the pitch, Haaland has a love for luxury, especially the Hermès Haut à Courroies (HAC) travel bags.

He has been spotted on numerous occasions with different versions of these bags in tow. This includes the black Multipocket HAC 50, which costs about $80,000 on luxury resale website Wardrobe by Rebecca, and the Evercalf Toile Cargo HAC 40, which costs about $75,000 on Vestiaire Collective.

He arrived on the Norwegian national team jet to Greensboro, North Carolina, for training camp at the start of the World Cup, carrying the rare Hermès HAC Birkin 50 "Endless Road," which costs $45,000 at the luxury resale store Madison Avenue Couture.

Haaland pictured with a Hermès HAC Birkin 50 "Endless Road" bag when getting off the plane for training camp in June.

David Jensen/Getty Images

Searches for "Hermès HAC 50" were virtually zero in the US until June, when it became a breakout query on Google Search.

Kerr said Haaland's appeal comes from the contrast between his ruthless competitiveness on the field and his playful, low-ego personality off it — a quality that aligns with Hermès.

"Hermès has been known to lean into playfulness and quiet humor, even though the overall brand carries a very serious aura of craftsmanship and restraint," Kerr said.

A spokesperson for Hermes declined to comment on whether Haaland has invested or collaborated with the brand.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Erling Braut Haaland (@erling)

Shoe-wise, he often sports white Nike Air Force Ones and Jordans, as well as high-end shoes like the $1,125 black Hermès Chypre sandal.

He has also been spotted with Louis Vuitton bags and Goyard suitcases.

"I think a number of brands can benefit from aligning with Haaland. It all depends which of his archetypes these brands want to lean into," Kerr said.

"The explosive performance hero type? The goofy, meme-friendly jester type? The Nordic understated loyal everyman type? Or the stylish new lux masculine type? He has mastered them all," he added.

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One chart shows why even non-tech job seekers should get comfortable with AI

Employers want AI knowledge in jobs outside software development.

Luis Alvarez/Getty Images

• A new analysis of job postings showed demand for AI knowledge goes beyond software development gigs.
• Management and marketing roles are among those making up a higher share of "AI-touched" job titles than a few years ago.
• It suggests employers want people with expertise in their line of work and additional AI fluency.

If you've been avoiding AI, it might be time to get familiar with what it can do in the workplace.

The share of Indeed job postings containing AI terms has skyrocketed over the past year. And job titles mentioning AI aren't limited to just tech.

A new analysis from Pawel Adrjan, senior director of economic research for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa at the Indeed Hiring Lab, examined "AI-touched" job titles, defined as those with at least five postings mentioning AI in the title in a specific quarter.

The analysis indicates the number of those titles has risen in the US from 264 in 2022, or 2.6% of titles with at least five job postings, to 822 in the first quarter of 2026, or 8.3%.

Sixty-three percent of AI-touched US job titles were non-tech. Software development accounted for the highest share of AI-touched job titles in the first quarter of 2026, as in 2022, but the share has declined as some other types of occupations have added AI to their titles.

Management, marketing, education, and instruction are among the occupational categories that have increased their share. That means employers are seeking people with both field and AI knowledge; a physical therapist using AI for documentation would still need to be skilled at helping patients while also familiar with the new systems.

In an interview with Business Insider, Adrjan compared this expansion of AI demand in the workforce to the previous broadening of computer skills beyond IT jobs.

"One pattern that stands out is that many of the roles with AI in the title are jobs that have existed for decades," Adrjan's report said. "Employers are not only hiring AI specialists, but they are also adding AI to the titles of jobs where the use of AI tools is required — an indication of how AI is already reshaping jobs."

Some examples include "AI Autonomous Truck Test Driver," "Physical Therapist (AI Documentation)," "AI Project Engineer," and "Electrical Engineer — Battery Systems for AI Data Centers."

How do you feel about AI as a job seeker or worker? Reach out to this reporter to share at mhoff@businessinsider.com.

Adding to the job rather than replacing workers

The "AI-touched" postings indicate that employers still want people to fill seats, even as roles start using the new tech.

"When a job title includes AI, what we see in the data is that it's more of a signal of demand than a signal of replacement," Adrjan said. "It really seems to capture employers who are wanting AI skills to be incorporated into the job, which looks a bit like augmentation."

Adrjan said mentions of AI in job titles don't mean people have to earn a computer science degree or acquire deep technical knowledge. Instead, it suggests employers want people with expertise in their field and AI fluency.

"That is reassuring for people who worry about AI because it's more about applying AI to the work that they already know and to the domain they already know, rather than having to switch into something completely different," Adrjan said.

A separate report by Guillermo Gallacher, an economist at Indeed Hiring Lab, showed changes in US job postings based on how exposed occupations were to AI. Gallacher said that "the more exposed to AI an occupation is, the more it declined" between May 2022 and May 2026, while the shorter span of May 2025 to May 2026 showed that "the more exposed to AI an occupation is, on average, the more it rebounded."

"The relationship between AI exposure and job postings appears to be flipping, from job destruction to job creation," Gallacher said.

Adrjan said the findings suggest AI augmentation, not necessarily AI creating jobs. He said that if people become familiar with AI tools, then it could open more doors for them in the labor market.

People can upskill on their own, but Adrjan said employers and educational institutions can also incorporate AI training, especially if a job requires specialized AI tools. That can help mitigate the risk of people falling behind.

"If AI competence continues to become an expectation across more occupations and across more jobs, then clearly there's a risk that some people may not be able to get the training or get familiarity with those tools as fast as others," Adrjan said.

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This fitness startup vibecoded an app to make you walk before you can scroll

Venus Williams-backed fitness app WeWard launched a new feature that lets users lock selected apps until they reach a customizable daily step goal.

Fotoreport-DB/picture alliance via Getty Images

• Venus Williams-backed fitness app WeWard launched a new feature to cut screen time.
• The "Walking Mode" lets users lock selected apps until they reach a customizable daily step goal.
• The company's non-technical staff vibecoded the feature with Claude AI in two months.

Want to keep scrolling your social apps? Take a walk.

WeWard, a French fitness app backed by tennis star Venus Williams, has vibecoded a new feature that puts social media behind a step count. Called "Walking Mode," it lets users lock apps like TikTok and Instagram until they hit a customizable walking goal — say, 3,000 steps before the doomscrolling can begin.

WeWard's cofounder and CEO, Yves Benchimol, told Business Insider the idea came from a member of the company's non-technical staff. Their head of growth, Tyler Chandler, used Claude to vibe-code and launch the feature within 2 months.

"A few months ago, we were talking about AI when an employee said, 'Hey, I think I can vibe code a feature where instead of earning financial rewards for working, we can give people a reward from the time screen,'" Benchimol said.

Chandler told Business Insider that his "walking mode" idea came from his own "pain point" of frequently postponing Apple's default screen time controls.

"It was born out of a goal: to demonstrate to our product, business, and tech employees that a single person armed with AI-assisted coding could develop a complex feature end-to-end," Chandler said.

"We wanted to galvanize the team to get excited about using AI to bring their own ideas to life no matter how 'out there' they might seem," Chandler added.

The "walking mode" lets users block select apps until a set count is reached.

WeWard

The feature expands on WeWard's existing rewards model, which grants users in-app currency called "Wards" for walking. Users can redeem the points for cash, gift cards, or charitable donations. The app also includes leaderboards that encourage friendly competition.

Benchimol said it's aimed at people looking to increase their physical activity while cutting back on screen time, because social media is promoting "a sedentary lifestyle" for all generations.

"Finding a way to motivate people to do better stuff is what we want to do, and we believe that constraining people from using social media when they wake up before they do any physical activity is a good way to help people get into a better shape, mentally and physically," Benchimol said.

Benchimol said that Williams, as the company's angel investor, is also supportive of all features that help people get outside and move their bodies, though she is more involved in marketing than in feature creation.

Williams' representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Benchimol said users typically spend only a few minutes a day inside the app, which he views as a positive outcome because its goal is to encourage activity away from phones.

The Paris-based company says it has more than 30 million users across 29 countries, including 4 million in the US, with top cities being New York, Chicago, and Miami. It also said that its platform increases users' walking time by nearly 25% on average. At the moment, the average user age is around 35, and 60% are women, the company said.

"So the feature was born as a way to block people from using their phone except if they start working and connect with their surroundings," Benchimol added.

Rather than letting social media come first, Benchimol wants users to earn it: "As a reward for being connected to the world, now you can be in the digital world."

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Anthropic has soared to a $1.2 trillion valuation on secondary markets. Shares are almost impossible to get.

Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive officer of Anthropic, during an interview on "The Circuit with Emily Chang" at Anthropic's headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, April 30, 2026.

Bloomberg/Getty Images

• Since Anthropic has yet to go public, most investors are forced to buy shares via secondary markets.
• The AI company soared to a $1.2 trillion valuation on a popular secondary exchange.
• Even at that high price, getting shares is a Herculean task as almost no one wants to sell.

Anthropic has soared to a $1.2 trillion valuation on secondary markets, but even at that astronomic price, good luck getting shares.

"Anthropic is the most sought-after company the venture secondary market has ever seen," said Javier Avalos, cofounder and CEO of Caplight, a secondary trading platform, where shares are trading at $1.2 trillion.

Glen Anderson, CEO of Rainmaker Securities, a merchant bank focused on private securities transactions, said he is also seeing transactions at $1.2 trillion, though deals remain rare because there are few sellers.

It was less than three months ago that Business Insider reported Anthropic reached a $1 trillion valuation, overtaking OpenAI for the first time. OpenAI, which had been valued much higher for years, is now valued at $908 billion on Caplight.

Anthropic's $1.2 trillion valuation represents a 550% year-over-year increase, according to Avalos.

The company was last valued at $965 billion in a Series H funding round announced in May. Last month, it filed paperwork to go public, with an expected IPO in the next few months.

Since Anthropic and OpenAI have yet to go public, the vast majority of investors are forced to buy via secondary markets, where existing stock is sold by employees or early investors. With the stock soaring, few are willing to part with their shares, and there have been a bevy of shady deals with high fees and byzantine ownership structures. Many have been structured as SPVs, or special-purpose vehicles, which allow investors to pool their funds for a single, one-off deal.

Anthropic declined to comment for this story. On its website, it has lately become more explicit in warning against unauthorized stock sales and scams.

"Invest at your own risk: if someone offers you a way to participate, even on an indirect basis, in an investment in Anthropic, assume that it is invalid," the company warns.

Still, many people have been willing to accept the risks, lest they miss out on what they see as the AI gold rush.

"Most of the supply we have seen in the market has been via SPV structures the company is openly against," Avalos said, adding many of those SPVs come with high fees.

Some interested buyers have gotten more creative, offering to sell their home in exchange for Anthropic shares.

"The demand outstrips the supply in Anthropic so much that it's rare to get a trade done because no one's selling," said Anderson. "If I could close everything I have in Anthropic in terms of demand, I would not be talking to you. I'd be on a beach right now."

Renewed interest in OpenAI

While Anthropic still commands the majority of investor interest—drawing five buyers for every two seeking OpenAI shares—OpenAI has seen a significant surge in momentum in recent weeks.

The enthusiasm is largely driven by the public rollout of OpenAI's powerful GPT-5.6 model series, which includes its new flagship model, "Sol," and the cost-effective "Terra."

"A month ago, we were seeing limited demand for OpenAI," he said. "We're still seeing breakneck demand for Anthropic, but now you're seeing OpenAI get bid on a lot more often."

Martin says he has always tried to follow the company's rules on secondary transactions carefully, but he has become more vigilant lately as Anthropic has intensified its scrutiny. He says he will only participate in "first-layer" SPVs, where the identity of the share seller is known.

"We're trying to make sure the trade is actually there for our investors, versus what could happen, which is Anthropic gets involved in some of these multi-layer SVB trades and invalidates them," he said.

Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures, which was an early backer of Anthropic, said he pays little attention to secondary market valuations, calling them a "noisy signal." Nonetheless, he understands the hype, based on the surging revenue numbers Anthropic shared before it entered into an SEC-mandated quiet period ahead of its IPO.

"Those numbers were crazy above what the plan was for the entire year," Murphy said. "So I guess they've earned somewhat the right for there to be quite a bit of interest in investing in the company."

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