According to Sawyer Merritt on X, demand for OpenAI shares in the secondary market has dropped sharply, with some brokers reporting it is almost impossible to place blocks with institutional buyers. As reported by Merritt, broker Smythe said their firm "couldn’t find anyone" among hundreds of institutional investors to take the shares, signaling a liquidity squeeze and weaker appetite for late‑stage private AI exposure. According to the tweet, this cooling could pressure implied valuations in tender offers and delay liquidity timelines for employees and early investors, while creating potential entry points for secondary buyers with stricter covenants and downside protections. For enterprises and funds, this signals a shift from growth-at-all-costs to cash efficiency and clearer unit economics, potentially impacting OpenAI’s partnership negotiations and hardware spend commitments, as inferred from the broker’s inability to clear inventory cited by Merritt.