The secondary private market grew significantly in 2025, with transactions representing 31% of all primary venture activity.
Inside the Private Stock Market Boom: SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI & the Rise of Secondaries
Private secondary markets have experienced a massive boom, with employee secondaries representing 31% of all primary venture activity in 2025 as companies choose to stay private longer.
Jun 7, 2026
39:38
Difficulty: Intermediate
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All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Inside the Private Stock Market Boom: SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI & the Rise of Secondaries
Private secondary markets have experienced a massive boom, with employee secondaries representing 31% of all primary venture activity in 2025 as companies choose to stay private longer.
Jun 7, 2026
39:38
Difficulty: Intermediate
Played
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Leading space exploration company known for running structured employee liquidity programs.
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AI research company discussed extensively in relation to secondary market interest and valuation risks.
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5 / 5 cited (100%)
Factual claims made this episode, and whether a source was named.
In the private secondary market, average pricing transitioned from trading at a discount (80 cents on the dollar) to a 106% premium in Q1 2026.
A basket of 19 private AI market companies grew on average by 300%.
Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, and other mutual funds are constrained by SEC rules limiting private holdings to 15% of their total assets.
Zipline reduced maternal mortality rates in some African regions by 90% to 95% by using autonomous drone medical deliveries.
TL;DR
Private secondary markets have experienced an unprecedented structural boom [1] — Brad Gerstner "Double 2021 Peak volume: Secondary market transactions are at historic highs, driven by the emergence of late-stage private companies and i…" 01:37 , with employee secondary transactions now representing 31% of all primary venture activity [2] — Brad Gerstner "31% of primary VC activity: Employee liquidity options have scaled tremendously, representing nearly one-third of total primary venture act…" 01:47 . Financial experts Brad Gerstner, Gavin Baker, and Kelly Rodriques join the hosts to explain how platforms like Forge Global are partnering with Charles Schwab to connect millions of retail accounts to late-stage private assets [3] — Kelly Rodriques "The alliance between Forge and Charles Schwab will democratize access to legendary private assets like SpaceX. This integration represents …" 09:22 . They discuss why companies choose to stay private longer [4] — Gavin Baker "Staying private shield CEOs from hard questions, creating an echo chamber of sycophantic private boards. Public markets provide clean, brut…" 03:40 , highlight hot opportunities like Revolut and Zipline, and warn of the extreme risk of retail FOMO. The ultimate takeaway is that secondary markets are fundamentally transforming corporate lifecycles, and modern investors must develop a rigorous selling discipline [5] — Brad Gerstner "Many venture capitalists focus exclusively on buying, forgetting that returning liquidity to LPs is the goal. Taking chips off the table du…" 16:48 to return true liquidity.
#Secondary Markets
#Venture Capital Liquidity
#Special Purpose Vehicles
#Fintech Innovation
#Democratized Investing
#Autonomous Robotics
#secondaries
#private-markets
#IPO
#liquidity
#venture-capital
#AI
#SPVs
#fintech
#investment
#democratization
2 minute taster
The Secondary Market Takeover
Private secondary market trading has surged past its 2021 peak, with transactions competing with IPOs as the primary liquidity mechanism. Employee-backed secondaries reached 31% of all primary venture activity in 2025.
How Zipline Conquered Autonomous Logistics
Zipline bypassed regulatory hurdles in US airspace by proving its autonomous drone tech delivering critical medicine in Africa. In doing so, they dropped maternal mortality rates by up to 95% in key regions.
Look closer
In this episode, Brad Gerstner, Gavin Baker, and Kelly Rodriques join the Besties to break down the explosive boom in private secondary stock markets. They explore how secondaries are competing directly with traditional IPOs, the dynamics keeping companies private longer, and the landmark deal between Forge and Charles Schwab. They also cover the risks of retail FOMO, the debate around SPVs, and name the hottest private companies they are buying today, including Revolut, Zipline, and specialized AI infrastructure plays.
Chapter list
- SPV
- Special Purpose Vehicle; a legal entity created for a single, specific financial transaction, often used in VC to pool capital from multiple investors to buy shares in a single private company.
- DPI
- Distributed to Paid-In Capital; a key venture capital performance metric measuring the cumulative distributions returned to limited partners relative to their total paid-in capital.
- Interval Fund
- A type of closed-end mutual fund that periodically offers to repurchase a percentage of its outstanding shares from shareholders, providing liquidity in otherwise illiquid asset classes.
- Agentic
- Relating to or acting as an agent; in AI, this refers to systems capable of autonomous decision-making and executing multi-step workflows.
- 13F
- A regulatory filing required of institutional investment managers with over $100 million in assets under management, disclosing their public equity holdings.
- ZERP
- Zero Interest Rate Policy; a macroeconomic period of near-zero interest rates that fueled massive valuation inflation in venture capital.
