Move over, SpaceX; a perhaps even more highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) looks like it is just around the corner. Anthropic, the start-up behind large language model (LLM) Claude and agentic coding assistant Claude Code, announced at the start of June that it has filed to go public. In late May, it raised $65 billion at a $965 billion valuation, so it looks set to be the next trillion-dollar IPO after SpaceX.
While Anthropic reported $4.8 billion in revenue in Q1, it said it was on track to more than double revenue sequentially in Q2 to $10.9 billion. It is also expecting an operating profit of $559 million in the current quarter, showing an ability not just to rapidly grow revenue but also to do so profitably. That's impressive, and one of the big reasons why the company's private market valuation has been skyrocketing.
Image source: Getty Images.
While retail investors eagerly await the chance to buy Anthropic shares themselves, if they want exposure before the IPO, there are a few options: Several publicly traded companies that are appealing buys on their own have invested in the LLM maker.
The cloud giants and Nvidia
Two of the largest stakeholders in Anthropic are cloud infrastructure giants Alphabet (GOOG +1.32%) (GOOGL +1.49%) and Amazon (AMZN -0.10%). Microsoft also holds a stake.
NASDAQ: AMZN
Key Data Points
Amazon was an early investor in the company, and its original $8 billion investment was valued at over $74 billion at the end of Q1. That's a massive gain that is only set to swell after Anthropic goes public.
Back in April, Amazon also committed to investing as much as $25 billion in the company, with $5 billion done at a $380 billion valuation and up to $20 billion more later, based on Anthropic hitting "certain commercial milestones." Amazon also received more than $100 billion in cloud computing commitments for Anthropic to use its Trainium and Graviton chips over the next decade.
Alphabet is also a huge investor in Anthropic, having made over $3 billion in early investments in the company; it reportedly held a 14% stake in the LLM maker before its most recent investment. In April, it committed to invest up to $40 billion more, starting with an initial $10 billion investment at a $380 billion valuation.
Similar to Amazon, the remaining purchases will be contingent on Anthropic reaching certain milestones. As part of its investment, Alphabet also reportedly got $200 billion in Google Cloud commitments from Anthropic.
Microsoft and Nvidia both invested in Anthropic when it had a value of around $380 billion. Microsoft invested $5 billion, while Nvidia invested $10 billion. However, of the megacap tech companies, Amazon and Alphabet are clearly the biggest direct beneficiaries of Anthropic's success.
Salesforce and Zoom
While Amazon and Alphabet will be the biggest beneficiaries in terms of absolute dollar amounts, the stocks of Salesforce (CRM +1.66%) and Zoom (ZM +1.88%) may have the most to gain.
NASDAQ: ZM
Key Data Points
Zoom was an early investor in Anthropic, acquiring its stake in a 2023 funding round. The company's investment was worth $1.27 billion at the end of Q1, based on Anthropic's $380 billion February funding round. With it recently raising money at a $965 billion valuation, that position should shoot up to around $3 billion, depending on dilution.
Zoom's stake in Anthropic makes up about 13% of its $23.5 billion enterprise value. That's a meaningful percentage that could help drive Zoom's stock upward.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg recently reported that Salesforce has about a $5 billion stake in Anthropic. The company invested about $50 million in early 2023 and has consistently invested in subsequent rounds ever since. Given Salesforce's $165 billion market cap, the growth of that stake won't have quite as much of an impact on the company as Zoom's stake will for it, but this is still a nice investment win for a stock that has struggled to gain traction in recent years and is trading at a bargain-basement valuation.
