Skip to navigationSkip to main contentSkip to right columnADVERTISEMENTLeo Sun, The Motley FoolFri, July 3, 2026 at 10:29 PM GMT+2 4 min readOpenAI and Anthropic, two of the world's fastest-growing AI companies, filed confidential draft S-1 registration statements with the SEC on May 22 and June 1, respectively. Both companies will likely go public in late 2026 or early 2027.OpenAI was valued at $852 billion after its latest funding round, and it aims to go public with a market cap of $1 trillion. That would be 50 times its annualized revenue run rate of $20 billion at the end of 2025. Anthropic was most recently valued at $965 billion. With a $1 trillion IPO, it would go public at 111 times its $9 billion in annualized revenue at the end of 2025.Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »Image source: Getty Images.Both companies only plan to float 5%-10% of their shares in their IPOs. That limited supply, along with the market hype and pent-up demand for their shares, could cause both stocks to immediately skyrocket -- even though they're already pricey relative to their growth rates.Therefore, some investors might be looking for ways to invest in Anthropic and OpenAI before their market debuts. Let's see how you can do that -- and why the risks might outweigh the potential rewards.If you're an accredited investor with a net worth of over $1,000,000 (excluding your primary residence) or an annual income of over $200,000, you can buy shares from employees and early investors on secondary marketplaces like Forge Global, Hiive, and EquityZen.Companies like Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD) have also launched shell companies, called special-purpose vehicles (SPVs), to acquire private shares of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. Rather than going through secondary marketplaces, investors can buy shares (or tokenized versions) of these SPVs to gain indirect exposure to these hot companies before they go public. Some SPVs even invest in shares of other SPVs instead of buying the actual private shares.However, OpenAI and Anthropic are both aggressively cracking down on these secondary sales, and they're legally allowed to void any of those transactions. Therefore, any shares purchased through secondary marketplaces or SPVs could become worthless before their IPOs.Another way to invest in OpenAI and Anthropic without dealing with sketchy secondary shares or SPVs is through a mutual fund or exchange-traded fund (ETF) -- like the ARK Venture Fund (NASDAQMUTFUND: ARKVX) and Fundrise Innovation Fund (NYSE: VCX) -- that owns institutional SPVs which the underlying companies directly back.Terms and Privacy PolicyEU DSA contactPrivacy & Cookie SettingsMore Info