Investors Chase AI Shares And GPUs Through Markets Few Can See Into

US venture secondary trading hit an annualized $112.2 billion in the first quarter, larger than public listings for the first time. Two quarters later PitchBook says the market has passed its peak, with late buyers in stacked vehicles underwater. The same appetite now funds loans against GPUs (graphics chips) at 9.95%.

Venture investors put $515.8 billion into US startups through September, and AI took 82.7% of it. Cash is returning far more slowly; fund distributions sit at 7.9% of net asset value against a 14.5% long-run average. Only 18 venture-backed companies listed in the third quarter, while 992 unicorns carry $5.7 trillion of paper value. Secondaries and GPU credit absorb the demand the exit market cannot serve.

Secondary volume is booming in a largely unregulated and opaque niche: trailing twelve-month trading reached $121.7 billion through June, anchored by SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic. Institutional money is less eager than the headline suggests. Evercore counted more than $120 billion of global secondary volume in the first half, a record, yet venture secondary volume held flat as dry powder built. Scarce allocations invite intermediaries. Before the SpaceX listing in June, some special purpose vehicles were stacked four or five layers deep, each one charging fees. Idan Miller, managing partner at Unicorns Exchange, told TechCrunch he expects bad actors to surface once lock-ups expire.

Issuers have started policing their own cap tables; for example Anthropic declared in May that share transfers to SPVs void under its transfer restrictions. OpenAI said unapproved sales carry no economic value to the buyer. Emily Zheng, senior VC analyst at PitchBook, called layered management fees the biggest red flag.