Artificial intelligence company Anthropic and OpenAI are preparing for initial public offerings (IPOs). In its most recent equity financing round completed in May 2026, Anthropic achieved a valuation of $965 billion, surpassing OpenAI’s valuation of $852 billion from March 2026. The company reports that its revenue run rate has reached $47 billion, driven largely by the success of Claude Code Agent and its multiple versions and derivative applications. According to data from commercial fintech company Ramp, Anthropic’s market share in enterprise model adoption has grown substantially since early 2025.
For investors seeking to position themselves before the IPO, investing in closed-end funds that hold its shares or investing in stakeholder companies such as Amazon and Alphabet are currently viable indirect participation methods.
Several publicly traded closed-end funds already hold Anthropic shares. Destiny Tech100 (DXYZ), launched in 2024, aims to build a portfolio of 100 top venture capital-backed technology companies. As of the end of the first quarter, the fund held 36 companies, with Anthropic as its largest position, accounting for 18% of net asset value. Given Anthropic’s significant valuation increase since the end of March, this position’s share of the portfolio may have expanded further. Other major holdings of Destiny Tech100 include SpaceX and OpenAI. The fund may continue to hold SpaceX shares, although SpaceX stock is now publicly traded, but the fund may seek to liquidate some assets and reinvest in more pre-IPO companies over the next year.
Another option is Ark Invest’s Ark Venture Fund. This closed-end fund aims to invest in 25 to 50 public and private companies focused on “disruptive innovation.” As of the end of June, its largest position was SpaceX, with OpenAI accounting for 6.33% of the portfolio and Anthropic accounting for 4.6%.
Investing in closed-end funds that hold private companies has certain drawbacks. First, such funds have high expense ratios, with Destiny charging 2.5% and Ark’s net expense ratio at 2.9%, which will erode investment returns. Second, investors face difficulty in accurately assessing the value of the underlying assets. While large companies like Anthropic regularly provide updates even without a legal obligation, information on smaller startups is harder to obtain, which significantly increases the volatility of such investments. Additionally, the Ark Venture Fund offers limited redemption and trading options and is only available for purchase on specific platforms, presenting liquidity risks.
Another path is to invest in publicly traded companies that hold substantial Anthropic stakes, which may offer greater transparency and lower expense ratios.
Amazon (AMZN) invested $4 billion in Anthropic in 2023 to bring its AI lab development onto its cloud computing platform AWS, added another $4 billion in 2024, invested an additional $5 billion earlier this year, and may invest up to $20 billion in total in the future. As of March 31, prior to the most recent investment, Amazon’s stake in Anthropic was valued at approximately $74 billion.
Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) is also a significant investor in Anthropic, having begun investing in 2023, committing approximately $3 billion cumulatively by 2025, and adding $10 billion earlier this year with a potential additional $30 billion to follow.
