How Anthropic Stock Outshines Cash in SF Real Estate

In the Bay Area, few assets rival the value of real estate. San Francisco’s median home price has soared past $2 million, with at least seven properties last month selling for $1 million above asking. Buyers routinely offer cash or waive contingencies just to stay competitive. Yet there is one commodity even more coveted than a house,and perhaps more valuable than cash itself: stock in Anthropic or OpenAI.

Last week, 160 Noe Street, an Edwardian home in San Francisco’s sought-after Duboce Triangle, hit the market for $2.9 million,or the equivalent value in Anthropic or OpenAI shares, based on those companies’ current valuations. The listing agent, Rachel Swann, says the idea came after meeting several Anthropic employees at an open house for another property. “These people have a lot of paper wealth, but they don’t always have the liquidity to do things they want,” Swann explains. Some employees expected to gain as much as $50 million from their Anthropic shares and wondered if they could use that equity as leverage to buy a home. “This kept coming up over and over again,” she adds.

Swann’s approach is unconventional but not isolated. In April, investment banker Storm Duncan offered to swap his Mill Valley home and an adjacent parcel of land for Anthropic shares. In May, Vijay Chattha, who runs a PR agency for tech companies, listed his Healdsburg property for $2.5 million,or $2 million in Anthropic stock. “I want to sell my house, and I want to invest in Anthropic,” Chattha says. “Why not combine the two?”

Chattha’s home features three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a pool, a bocce court, and coveted short-term rental status in a part of Sonoma County near some of the region’s most famous wineries. Only a handful of properties in Healdsburg carry that status, and typically only about a dozen become available each year. Chattha is offering a $500,000 discount to Anthropic employees because he believes the company’s shares will appreciate faster than any other investment. His vacation home in wine country, he says, is the best bargaining chip he has to access those shares. “If you look at Anthropic’s growth last year, it’s insane,” he notes, pointing to the $380 billion valuation the company claimed in February. “Now they’re raising at $965 billion. That’s three X in like three months.” He added that he would only accept Anthropic shares, not OpenAI, because he prefers using Anthropic’s products.

These real estate listings emerge as investors salivate over the record-high valuations of Anthropic and OpenAI. Even those considered wealthy by Bay Area standards are feeling FOMO about the potential windfall from these companies’ anticipated stock market debuts. On Monday, Anthropic filed paperwork for its initial public offering; OpenAI is reportedly preparing to file in the coming months. Despite the unprecedented valuations, many believe the stock prices will only climb, and that anyone who secures a piece now could hit the jackpot.

Demand for equity in OpenAI and Anthropic on the secondary market has sparked a frenzy of transactions, some of questionable legitimacy. In response, Anthropic updated its policy this spring regarding “unauthorized Anthropic stock sales,” stating that “if someone purports to sell Anthropic shares without proper board approval, that transaction is invalid.” When asked about exchanging company shares for real estate, an Anthropic spokesperson referred back to that policy.