Anthropic, one of the world’s leading developers of artificial intelligence (AI) models, could be just weeks away from making its stock market debut.
The company, which creates the Claude family of large language models (LLMs), is looking to launch its initial public offering (IPO) in mid-October, according to Reuters which also suggested Anthropic’s IPO prospectus could be made public within days.
Anthropic’s listing would follow in the wake of SpaceX’s IPO in June, which saw Elon Musk’s space exploration and AI company post the largest stock market debut in history, raising over $75 billion at a valuation of $1.77 trillion.
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Anthropic’s IPO could potentially reach similar numbers.
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“Anthropic is rumoured to be raising up to $100 billion as part of its stock market listing,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at investing platform AJ Bell. “Anthropic was valued at $965 billion at its last fundraising (May 2026), yet there are suggestions its public stock listing could boost that valuation to as much as $2 trillion.”
Like SpaceX’s IPO, Anthropic’s looks set to be a hit with retail investors. A survey by financial consumer site Boring Money found that nearly half (48%) of UK investors would be keen to buy into Anthropic’s rumoured IPO, compared to just 28% who said the same about its rival OpenAI (which has also started its IPO process).
“The reported brand affinity with Claude and inevitable investor fear of missing out around an Anthropic IPO will likely make it a hugely popular event with Britain’s growing ‘army’ of more than 14 million DIY investors,” said Holly Mackay, founder and CEO of Boring Money.
When will Anthropic’s IPO take place?
While reports suggest that Anthropic is targeting a mid-October date for its IPO, the date is not yet confirmed.
The next step in the IPO process is for Anthropic to publish its IPO prospectus. Reuters reported that this could happen in the week commencing 7 September.
Also as yet unconfirmed is the exchange that the IPO might take place on, though given Anthropic’s status as a high profile technology company it is widely expected to be the Nasdaq.
How to invest in Anthropic before its IPO
Until Anthropic’s IPO you can’t buy its shares directly, but there are ways to gain indirect exposure – effectively by buying shares in companies or investment trusts that have already invested in it.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Google’s parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) both hold a stake in Anthropic. While Alphabet’s is larger in absolute terms,Amazon’s is higher as a percentage of its own total market capitalisation, so putting your money into Amazon gets you a bigger stake in Anthropic than doing so into Alphabet.
But you’d get an even bigger cut by investing in a surprising company: Zoom Communications (NASDAQ:ZM). While Zoom’s surge to prominence during the Covid pandemic was short-lived, it invested some of the windfall into Anthropic in 2023.
“Zoom has a $3.13 billion stake in the AI company, which is equal to 11% of the communication group’s entire market value,” said Coatsworth. “Therefore, any future valuation uplift in Anthropic could move the dial for Zoom’s share price.”
Coatsworth also identified three investment trusts with meaningful stakes in Anthropic: Baillie Gifford US Growth (LON:USA), Schiehallion (LON:MNTN) and Scottish Mortgage (LON:SMT).
Of the three, Scottish Mortgage has the lowest allocation to Anthropic – with the AI firm accounting for 2.8% of its portfolio as of 31 July, compared to 6.6% for Baillie Gifford US Growth and 5.9% for Schiehallion.
