One of the most anticipated initial public offerings (IPOs) of 2026 could be coming shortly: Anthropic. Anthropic is an artificial intelligence (AI) lab that makes the Claude family of large language models. Anthropic has emerged as one of the leading companies in this area, and the market has been clamoring for it to go public for a while. Some estimates value the IPO at as much as $2 trillion, which is a very expensive price tag for how much the company generates and how much money it's losing. However, there will still be a large chunk of investors who buy in at the IPO. This may cause a short-term rally, but after that, the stock may need to show some profitability improvements to be considered a great long-term pick.
However, one statement in the leaked Anthropic prospectus drives me to conclude that investors should be buying up stocks of computing unit suppliers. The leader in this segment is Nvidia (NVDA -0.74%), and it looks like it could be a great stock to buy now based on these comments from Anthropic.
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AI could be much more advanced than it is now
One of the most incredible statements from Anthropic in its prospectus document, according to Reuters, is that AI is "limited principally by the availability of compute." That's an incredible statement, as it basically says that if we had more computing power, we could be more advanced.
One of the primary reasons for Anthropic to go public is so it can have access to more funding sources, as it can raise money through debt issuance as well as by issuing more shares in the market. Anthropic isn't being shy about how much it's planning to spend, either: $518 billion during the next decade. That's a huge amount of growth ahead, and it could even be underestimating that if more compute becomes available.
Anthropic tells prospective investors that it doesn't believe demand will be an issue, just computing supply. That bodes well for companies like Nvidia, as it's supplying a large chunk of the computing power to the AI industry.
Nvidia's investment thesis hinges on supply constraints
Computing unit suppliers like Nvidia still cannot make enough hardware to satisfy the demand from AI hyperscalers. In fact, Nvidia's forecast for growth of 70% during the next fiscal year hinges on the industry remaining supply-constrained. However, Anthropic believes this condition will persist for some time, continuing to drive AI hyperscalers to pay sky-high prices for computing units.
NASDAQ: NVDA
Key Data Points
This benefits Nvidia and its peers, and as I think about the consequences of a company like Anthropic going public, it pushes me to invest in Nvidia and other computing unit suppliers rather than Anthropic. Anthropic has a lot to prove with its business model, as it must build a huge subscription base that uses its products. It's likely, but it requires an enormous audience for the finances to make sense.
Let's say 1 billion people pay a $50 monthly subscription for Anthropic's product. That will generate $600 billion in revenue per year. That's an extremely bullish projection and a huge amount of money, but consider this: Wall Street analysts expect Nvidia to generate nearly $700 billion in 2028.
What does this mean? I think it's pretty simple. Nvidia is the world's most value company. It took it more than three decades to reach that point and it has prospered in recent years amid enormous AI spending. Anthropic has a long way to go before it's a viable business, much less a company on par with Nvidia -- and there's a lot of risk ahead.
This makes Nvidia an excellent long-term investment, as companies like Anthropic will fuel its growth. As a result, I'm more interested in buying Nvidia than I am in Anthropic.
