San Francisco home sellers accept OpenAI and Anthropic stock as payment amid AI wealth boom

A new kind of currency

In San Francisco's Duboce Triangle, a renovated three-bedroom apartment in an Edwardian-era house listed for nearly $3 million drew attention for an unusual payment option: the seller would consider shares in OpenAI or Anthropic instead of cash. A young OpenAI employee who viewed the property said he planned to ask his bosses about a stock transfer. The listing is part of a broader trend in which AI company equity is becoming an accepted form of payment in the city's luxury real estate market.

The gold rush

Nima Gabbay, a real estate investor, listed his three-bedroom, two-bath home for $2.995 million last month with a similar clause. The property features 10-foot ceilings, a Calacatta marble kitchen, remote-control skylights and an oversize two-car garage. Two OpenAI employees offered shares, one bidding more than $1 million above asking, though that bid appeared to inflate the stock's value. Another backed out after OpenAI filed to go public, preferring to hold the shares. A third tech buyer ultimately secured the property, with the sale set to close this week under a nondisclosure agreement.

There's a bit of a gold rush situation right now in San Francisco. Selling the home was an avenue for me to potentially pick up some of this stock and be a part of the excitement of the companies going public.

Market impact

The influx of AI wealth is distorting the broader market. Sales of homes above $10 million have doubled in the past six months compared with a year earlier, according to Joel Goodrich of Coldwell Banker. Last month, 44 homes closed at prices at least $1 million above asking, and 144 such sales have occurred so far this year, up from just eight in the first half of 2025, said Mike Simonsen, chief economist at Compass Real Estate. Fewer than 600 homes are currently on the market, intensifying competition.

IPO anticipation

OpenAI and Anthropic, each valued at nearly $1 trillion, are expected to go public soon, along with the recent offering of Elon Musk's SpaceX. The IPOs could create more than 16,000 millionaires and over 20 billionaires, according to private market research firm Sacra. Sellers are betting that accepting pre-IPO stock now will yield far greater returns than cash, while buyers are wagering that today's overpayments will look modest once the companies list.