Anthropic is set to go public next week, with a potential date of Nov. 19 for an initial public offering that could value the AI giant on a fully diluted basis at over $1.4 trillion. For many retail investors, the IPO may be the first chance they have to own Anthropic and even that ownership event will be out of reach with limited shares allocated to retail brokerage firms. But there were ways for retail investors to own Anthropic shares at a much earlier date. Investors may also be able to get in on the next hot IPO well before listing day.
There are several ways to do this, though it can depend on whether you’re an accredited investor under SEC guidelines when investing directly in a private company versus accessing a privately held stock through a diversified fund. Generally, this means being able to prove you have $200,000 in individual income, or $300,000 jointly, or $1 million in net worth, not counting an investor’s home. The SEC has proposed expanding accredited investor eligibility beyond traditional income and net worth thresholds, through an exam-based route, but that’s not currently an option.
Here’s what investors looking for some pre-IPO action need to know:
Mutual funds and ETFs can own private companies
Some mutual funds and ETFs invest in private companies before they are public. “It’s not like buying the IPO directly, so you have to be comfortable with the portfolio,” said Chester Spatt, professor of finance at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.
That means reviewing all of the portfolio holdings of a fund and its investment approach, not just the fact that it has a stake in the one company that has yet to go public. Even so, mutual funds and ETFs can be a way to gain some exposure to the pre-IPO world, with SpaceX, Anthropic and its rival OpenAI all recent examples.
For example, Fidelity Contrafund, a large-cap growth fund, says in its prospectus that the adviser may invest the fund’s assets in securities of private or newly public companies. It was an early investor in SpaceX, for example, buying shares in 2015 when the company was valued at about $10 billion. SpaceX represented about 4.4% of the fund’s holdings at the end of September.
Billionaire mutual fund manager Ron Baron’s Partners Fund, which seeks long-term capital appreciation, also invested in SpaceX. At the end of October, SpaceX was the fund’s No. 1 holding, accounting for 28% of its assets.
Before buying a fund that invests in private companies, be sure to consider redemption and fees, Spatt said. For example, The Private Shares Fund, which seeks capital appreciation by focusing on investments in late-stage, venture-backed private companies, allows quarterly tenders for up to 5% of the fund’s outstanding shares at NAV. The management fee is 1.9%, higher than many index funds.
Funds that provide access to Anthropic
Several ETFs list Anthropic among their holdings, including the Tema Photonics & Optical ETF (LAZR), Tema Electrification ETF (VOLT), Alger Concentrated Equity ETF (CNEQ), Alger AI Enablers & Adopters ETF (ALAI), Alger 35 ETF (ATFV), KraneShares Public-Private AI & Technology ETF (AGIX), and iShares A.I. Innovation and Tech Active ETF (BAI).
Several big mutual fund and ETF companies, similar to the SpaceX shares, have reported ownership in Anthropic in the past, including T. Rowe Price, Capital Group and Fidelity Investments. Fifty Fidelity funds have stakes in Anthropic, according to Morningstar, at roughly $5 billion. Capital Group has an even greater stake across its funds, at $10 billion, according to Morningstar.
But there is a catch: not all the funds own shares outright, with some ETFs gaining exposure through what are called special purpose vehicles.
How SPVs provide access to private companies
Fund managers and accredited investors can access late-stage start-ups through special purpose vehicles.
Tema’s LAZR ETF, for example, lists Anthropic as its second-biggest holding, but it is through an SPV. Its VOLT fund has a much smaller holding in Anthropic.
Accredited investors can also access SPV-related investment opportunities directly, through an online platform like Caplight, Sydecar and Augment, said Emily Zheng, senior venture capital analyst at private investment research firm Pitchbook, or through their wealth manager. Keep in mind, however, you could be buying an SPV that owns the shares outright, or you could be invested in an SPV that has shares of an SPV that owns the shares, she said. There can also be multiple layers of fees.
“This structure may allow investors to participate at lower minimums than would typically be required for a direct share purchase, while the fund manager handles the complexity of acquisition, ongoing administration, and tax reporting on behalf of investors,” according to private wealth and alternative investments manager TSG Invest, which invests in pre-IPO shares. It says SPVs are becoming the dominant structure in pre-IPO investing, now accounting for roughly 40% to 50% of all secondary market transactions.
Trading stocks now happens well before they IPO
Accredited investors who want access to shares of private companies that may not be imminently ready to IPO can buy through online private stock trading platforms such as Schwab’s Forge Global, Morgan Stanley’s EquityZen, Notice, Caplight Technologies and Clarity, previously known as Hiive.
Platforms have different private holdings available, and investment requirements can vary. There can also be multiple fees. For instance, at Forge, opening an account and using the marketplace to trade shares are free. However, buyers pay a one-time fee for both direct shares and fund offerings. Investors should also be aware that some companies may charge their own transfer or legal fees, according to a Forge spokesperson.
Several platforms require investment minimums. The standard minimum for direct secondary transactions at Forge, for example, is $100,000, though minimums may vary by investment type and offering. Certain Forge fund offerings may accept indications of interest starting at $5,000, but availability is limited and subject to the terms of the specific offering, the company says on its website.
Investors need to consider their time horizon and their liquidity needs before investing in private companies. Additionally, minimums at online platforms can be high, even for accredited investors, said Zheng. “But it is a lot lower than traditional venture investment,” Zheng said.
Publicly available closed-end funds are another option
Individual investors can get access to private companies through about two dozen publicly available closed-end funds focused on private equity or venture capital, according to Morningstar Direct.
Funds vary in their holdings between early-stage and late-stage companies. OpenAI, for instance, represents about 9.4% of the holdings of Robinhood Ventures Fund I. The fund’s holdings also include 4.2% of Ramp, which could IPO at some point in the next year, and its largest holding is enterprise tech company Databricks.
Sofi, meanwhile, offers access to certain funds that may not be available through other brokerages. Private and venture funds on Sofi’s platform include the ARK Venture Fund, which owns both OpenAI and Anthropic; and the Destiny Tech100 Closed End Fund, which also owns both AI companies.
Closed-end funds also offer exposure to other closely watched private names, such as the Cashmere Fund, which owns Kalshi. The Fundrise Innovation Fund has reported holdings in Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, Anduril and Ramp as of its year-end 2025 statement, but not more recently.
These funds can carry significantly higher fees than index funds or ETFs consisting of public company stocks. Robinhood Ventures Fund I, for example, has an expense ratio of 3.13%.
Retail brokers have limited access to the Anthropic IPO
If a retail investor does want to get in on the IPO, some brokerage firms are able to offer Anthropic IPO access to clients, and you generally don’t have to be an accredited investor to be eligible.
Anthropic, for example, said in a Nov. 2 regulatory filing that it was allocating some IPO shares to brokerage customers of Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Robinhood Financial (including its TradePMR division), SoFi, and Morgan Stanley’s E-Trade.
SpaceX offered about 20% of its IPO shares to individual investors through these brokerages.
Individual brokerages determine the requirements for participation. SoFi, for example, requires investors to have a particular account type, but there are no account minimums. Fidelity allows access to brokerage customers with at least $25,000 in retail assets at the firm.
To request shares, eligible investors generally enter an indication of interest for the offering they are interested in. However, there’s no guarantee investors will receive shares or how many. In many cases, investors may be disappointed with their allocation.
“We only get a limited number of shares for each IPO,” Robinhood says on its website. “If customer demand is higher than our supply, we can’t fulfill every request in full. How shares are distributed depends on the allocation method used for the offering.”
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