This article originally appeared in NerdWallet's investing newsletter, the Nerdy Investor. You can subscribe for free here.
Pop quiz: What’s the largest AI lab in the world?
No, it’s not OpenAI. It’s Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot. As of its most recent fundraising announcement from May 28, Anthropic is worth $965 billion, making it slightly larger than its $852 billion rival OpenAI.
It’s also on track to go public sooner. If you’re looking to get in on Anthropic’s IPO — or try to get a stake before the IPO — here are your options.
What’s the deal with Anthropic’s IPO?
On June 1, Anthropic confirmed its intent to go public when it announced on its website that it had confidentially filed an investment prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The contents of that prospectus aren’t publicly available, although Reuters got a look at them in late September. Reuters reported that Anthropic is still a long way from profitability — it lost $42 billion last year — but that it is nonetheless targeting a valuation of more than $2 trillion, meaning that the Anthropic IPO could be the largest ever.
(For comparison: Anthropic's rival OpenAI is seeking a valuation of about $1.4 trillion in an ongoing private funding round, and lost $39 billion last year according to leaked documents.)
We don’t know the date, proposed ticker symbol or proposed share price for the Anthropic IPO yet. We also don’t know whether retail investors will be allowed to participate directly in the IPO, or which brokers would sell IPO shares. In the case of the SpaceX IPO, only five brokers — Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Robinhood, SoFi and E*TRADE — offered IPO shares directly.
If Anthropic IPO shares are made available to retail investors, they’ll probably be through one of the brokers reviewed by NerdWallet that offer IPO access. Below is a list of those brokers with the highest overall ratings.
OpenAI was once thought to be on a faster IPO track, but a late-June New York Times report citing OpenAI insiders said that it is now leaning toward waiting until 2027. Anthropic’s exact timeline is not known, but the latest reporting still points toward an IPO before Thanksgiving.
Can you buy pre-IPO shares of Anthropic as an accredited investor?
Shares of certain private companies are available to accredited investors — people who have a net worth of at least $1 million, or an annual income of at least $200,000 for individuals or $300,000 for married couples, or certain financial licenses.
Several websites, such as Forge Global and Hiive, function as online exchanges in which accredited investors can trade these private shares. However, Anthropic is notoriously strict about this kind of thing. Its website states that it does not allow share sales without board approval, and that purported third-party sales of Anthropic shares may not be legitimate.
Forge Global and Hiive both have pages about Anthropic, but don't get your hopes up: Both websites explicitly state that shares are not available on their platforms. (Shares of Anthropic’s rival, OpenAI, are available on both of these marketplaces. Check out our article on investing in OpenAI for more information.)
Funds with pre-IPO exposure to Anthropic
Despite the Anthropic board’s tight grip on pre-IPO shares, there are a few publicly traded funds that own stakes in Anthropic — or at least, say they do.
By screening SEC filings, we found several funds available to retail investors that claim to have at least 2.5% of their assets in Anthropic shares.
Fund Name | Ticker | Anthropic Exposure (%) |
|---|---|---|
Destiny Tech100 Inc. | DXYZ | 14.40% |
Tema Photonics & Optical ETF | LAZR | 9.25% |
BlackRock Technology and Private Equity Term Trust | BTX | 8.61% |
BlackRock Science and Technology Trust | BST | 7.25% |
BlackRock Science and Technology Term Trust | BSTZ | 5.82% |
Source: SEC EDGAR database and fund websites. Data is current as of October 13, 2026, and is intended for informational purposes only. | ||
*DXYZ and LAZR are invested in special purpose vehicles that claim to have exposure to Anthropic shares. These claims feel suspicious to our team, especially in light of Anthropic’s warning about third-party investments (which explicitly says that investments in Anthropic through SPVs are not permitted). When reached, an Anthropic spokesperson declined to comment on these funds and could not verify their legitimacy. Use caution when deciding whether to invest in these funds.
» Want to add these ETFs to your portfolio? Check out the best ETF platforms
Public companies that supply and own stakes in Anthropic
Another indirect way to get Anthropic exposure before its IPO is by investing in its partners. There are several large, publicly traded tech companies that both act as suppliers to Anthropic and own multibillion-dollar equity stakes in the company. We’ve listed a few of Anthropic’s biggest shareholder-vendors below:
Alphabet (GOOG): Owns a stake in Anthropic worth more than $120 billion (more than 12% of Anthropic’s value) and is a major supplier of computer hardware and cloud computing services to the company.
Amazon (AMZN): Has invested at least $33 billion in Anthropic over the last few years (that stake may now be worth significantly more due to increases in Anthropic’s valuation). Also a major hardware and cloud services supplier to Anthropic.
Nvidia (NVDA): Invested $10 billion in Anthropic late last year (stake may be worth more now). Major hardware supplier to Anthropic and its partners.
Microsoft (MSFT): Invested $5 billion in Anthropic late last year (stake may be worth more now). Major supplier of cloud services to Anthropic.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): Invested $5 billion in Anthropic in late July. Major hardware supplier to Anthropic.
» Wondering if you're using the right platform? See our list of the best online brokers for stock trading
Be careful: The Big AI IPOs haven’t gone great so far
Yup, it’s time for that part of the article where we harp on the risks of investing in big, flashy IPOs. But this time, we have a concrete, recent example.
SpaceX (SPCX) — which, in terms of valuation, largely consists of its subsidiary xAI, an Anthropic competitor — has had a rocky run since its June IPO, and has spent much of that time below its IPO price.
Maybe that’s peculiar to SpaceX. Or maybe it’ll just be the first of many trillion-dollar AI IPOs that fail to live up to their own hype. Would-be Anthropic shareholders should prepare themselves for that possibility, too.
Article sources
- 1.Anthropic. Anthropic raises $65B in Series H funding at $965B post-money valuation. Accessed Jul 31, 2026.
- 2.Reuters. OpenAI aiming for speedy IPO, source says. Accessed Jul 31, 2026.
- 3.Anthropic. Anthropic confidentially submits draft S-1 to the SEC. Accessed Jul 31, 2026.
- 4.Reuters. Anthropic's IPO prospectus shows sweeping AI vision, surging costs. Accessed Oct 5, 2026.
- 5.Reuters. OpenAI targets $30 billion funding at $1.4 trillion valuation, Bloomberg News reports. Accessed Oct 5, 2026.
- 6.Financial Times. OpenAI spending hit $34bn last year ahead of planned IPO.
- 7.New York Times. OpenAI Leans Toward Waiting Until Next Year for I.P.O.. Accessed Jul 31, 2026.
- 8.Bloomberg. Anthropic Targets Mega-IPO Before Thanksgiving Holiday. Accessed Oct 5, 2026.
- 9.Anthropic. Unauthorized Anthropic stock sales and investment scams. Accessed Jul 31, 2026.
- 10.Bloomberg. Alphabet's Anthropic Stake Jumps to Around $124 Billion. Accessed Jul 31, 2026.
- 11.CNBC. Amazon to invest up to another $25 billion in Anthropic as part of AI infrastructure deal. Accessed Jul 31, 2026.
- 12.Microsoft. Microsoft, NVIDIA and Anthropic announce strategic partnerships. Accessed Jul 31, 2026.
- 13.Advanced Micro Devices. AMD and Anthropic Announce Strategic Partnership to Deploy Up to 2 Gigawatts of AMD Instinct MI450 Series GPUs. Accessed Jul 31, 2026.
