Inside the Invitation-Only Stock Market for the Wealthy

This year’s largest stock sale wasn’t on the New York Stock Exchange or its uptown rival, the Nasdaq Stock Market. Instead, it was a $40 billion offering by OpenAI that was available to only the investors handpicked by the firm’s executive team, including Sam Altman himself. Fewer than 50 investors snagged shares. 

For most Americans, the universe of stocks they can invest in is rapidly shrinking. The number of public companies in the U.S. is half of its peak in the late 1990s.That’s not a problem for the rich.