Investors are rushing to claim stakes in AI through SPVs, secondary markets, and pre-IPO perpetual futures—synthetic or real—because demand for ownership outstrips supply. Framed by the internet’s evolution from “read” to “write” to “own,” this trend shows the next phase democratizes economic rights in AI alongside its technologies.

Secondary-market trades on Forge Global pushed Anthropic’s valuation to about $1 trillion, surpassing OpenAI’s roughly $880 billion price. The surge reflects scarce share supply, rapid revenue growth (from a $9 billion to $39 billion annual run rate), and partnerships with Amazon and Palantir.