Investors seeking stakes in Anthropic are encountering sharply different access fees, exposing an emerging inconsistency on Wall Street. While Morgan Stanley charged clients a 1% fee for access to the AI company's $30bn private fundraising in February, Goldman Sachs imposed a multi-layered structure with management fees and profit shares for its clients.

The fee disparity suggests investors could earn unequal returns depending on their banking relationships. Both banks had allocations to the deal that gave Anthropic a $350bn valuation, raising questions about transparency in private market pricing structures favored by the world's fastest-growing private companies. This reflects a broader trend of inconsistent practices in how Wall Street banks charge clients for exclusive investment opportunities.

This development comes as AI companies prepare for potentially record-breaking IPOs. Anthropic's fundraising demonstrates continued appetite for unlisted tech investments despite market turbulence, with both it and OpenAI expected to pursue major listings this year while expanding their investor bases to include mutual funds and retail participants alongside strategic partners like Microsoft and Nvidia.