What’s worth more than cash in San Francisco real estate? Anthropic stock

Few things are More valuable in the Bay Area than real estate. And in San Francisco, the median home price is now over 2 million dollars. Last month, at least seven homes were sold in the city A million dollars above the asking priceand buyers regularly offer to pay cash or waive contingencies to maintain their competitive edge. However, there is one thing that remains more valuable than a house, and perhaps more valuable than money itself: shares in Anthropic or OpenAI.

last week, 160 Noy Streetan Edwardian house in San Francisco’s desirable Duboce Triangle neighborhood, has been listed for sale for $2.9 million — or the equivalent in Anthropic or OpenAI stock, based on those companies’ current valuations. Listing agent Rachel Swann says she was inspired to set these unusual terms after meeting several Anthropists at an open house for a different property. “These people have a lot of paper wealth, but they don’t always have the liquidity to do the things they want,” Swan says. Some of those employees were expecting to receive up to $50 million for their Anthropic stock, and wondered if they could use that as leverage to buy a house, according to Swan. “This just kept coming up over and over again.”

Swan’s menu is unconventional, but not idiosyncratic. In April, an investment banker named Storm Duncan offered to trade his Mill Valley home and an adjacent lot for Anthropic stock. In May, Vijay Chatha, who owns an agency that does public relations for technology companies, listed his Healdsburg home for $2.5 million, or $2 million in Anthropy stock. “I want to sell my house, and I want to invest in Anthropic,” says Chatha. “Why not combine the two?

Chatha House— a three-bed, three-bath with a pool and bocce court in a part of Sonoma County bordering some of the region’s most popular wineries — also comes with coveted short-term rental status, allowing the owner to list it on platforms like Airbnb. Only a few properties in Healdsburg enjoy this status Only about a dozen Going out for sale in a given year.

Chattha offers a $500,000 discount to Anthropic employees because he believes the value of Anthropic stock will grow faster than any other investment, and his vacation home in Wine Country is his best bargaining chip to try to land. “If you look at Anthropic’s growth in the last year, it’s crazy,” he says, pointing to the $380 billion valuation the company announced in February. “Now they’re raising $965 billion. That’s three X’s in about three months.” He added that he is open to swapping the house for shares in Anthropic, but not OpenAI, because he prefers to use Anthropic’s products.

The real estate listings come at a time when investors are salivating over soaring valuations for Anthropic and OpenAI, and even those considered wealthy by Bay Area standards are fearful of the riches that could come from these companies’ stock market debuts. (on monday, Anthropologie has filed the necessary paperwork for its initial public offering; OpenAI is also said to be preparing to file in the coming months.) Despite the unprecedented valuations of these companies, many people believe that their stock prices will only rise, and that anyone who gets a piece now could hit the jackpot.

People are demanding To buy shares in OpenAI and Anthropic on the secondary market, triggering a flurry of transactions that may or may not be legitimate. As a result, Anthropic has updated its website policy about “unauthorized Anthropic stock sales” this spring, which notes that “if someone purports to sell Anthropic stock without proper approval from the Board of Directors, such transaction is void.” An Anthropic spokesperson referred to this policy when asked about the possibility of exchanging company shares for real estate.