162: How Anyone Can Invest in OpenAI & Anthropic w/ Ben Miller

Fundrise CEO Ben Miller explains how his firm's Innovation Fund, now listed on the NYSE as VCX, gives retail investors access to top private tech companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX, Databricks, Anduril, and Ramp. The fund, which launched in 2022 with over $600 million in assets, has returned about 65% over the last 12 months and 85% over two years by investing during market lows. Miller details the mechanics, rationale, and tradeoffs of bridging private venture capital with public markets.

Private markets' rise and access barriers

Private tech companies stay private longer because private markets have grown from negligible in the 1990s to tens of trillions today, fueled by crises like 2008, 2001, and COVID that made public markets more volatile. Companies like Amazon (IPO after three years at $438 million valuation) once needed public markets for capital; now, private funding exceeds public tech raises, with billions flowing to OpenAI and Anthropic last year. Employees and early investors get liquidity via tender offers, avoiding public market burdens like activists and index exclusion. Traditional venture funds require multimillion-dollar commitments from qualified purchasers (net worth over $5 million), 10-year lockups, and capital calls over years, blocking retail investors from pre-IPO growth where much modern wealth forms.