2 Software Stocks to Buy Before the Anthropic IPO

Anthropic recently filed a confidential S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) -- a major step forward on the path to going public. The developer of the Claude family of large language models is on track for what will likely become one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) in history.

Naturally, retail investors are buzzing about this pending opportunity to acquire portfolio exposure to this artificial intelligence (AI) superstar. Smart investors, however, understand that there's no need to wait in line for Anthropic's IPO.

Two established software giants -- Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) and Zoom Communications (NASDAQ: ZM) -- already offer investors passive exposure to Anthropic through their strategic partnerships with and direct equity stakes in the company. These relationships position Salesforce and Zoom to capture upside from Anthropic's growth while also offering the stability of mature, AI-driven revenue streams.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

How do Salesforce and Anthropic work together?

Salesforce made its first investment in Anthropic during the start-up's Series C funding round in 2023. The company's in-house venture arm, Salesforce Ventures, has doubled down on this investment over the course of the AI revolution as Anthropic continued to raise billions of dollars. According to reports from Bloomberg and The Information, Salesforce's stake in Anthropic is now valued at roughly $5 billion.

Salesforce's relationship with Anthropic involves far more than a passive financial position. Through integrations with Amazon Bedrock, Salesforce has embedded Claude models across its Einstein AI and Agentforce platforms, as well as Slack's communication system.

Working with Anthropic has supercharged Salesforce's ability to turn raw data into actionable intelligence in regulated industries like finance, healthcare, and legal services. Using Claude's capabilities within the Salesforce ecosystem enables customers to deploy AI for everything from customer relationship management to automated compliance workflows.

How do Zoom and Anthropic work together?

Like Salesforce, Zoom first entered into a partnership with Anthropic in 2023 with a $51 million investment, part of a strategic investment through Zoom Ventures. Earlier this year, Zoom invested an additional $46 million in Anthropic. But largely thanks to the rapid growth of the AI company, the total value of its stake has soared to $1.3 billion in just three years.

As part of their collaboration, Zoom integrated Claude's capabilities into its AI Companion and Contact Center suite. Zoom's goal is to enhance its virtual collaboration network by using Claude to automate follow-up items, generate insights from meetings, and even suggest real-time agenda optimizations.

Why Salesforce and Zoom look like compelling investments amid the SaaSpocalypse

Earlier this year, Anthropic launched Claude Cowork, a suite of agentic AI plugins marketed toward legal, sales, finance, marketing, and data analytics professionals. The introduction of these AI services models heavily disrupted the software-as-a-service (SaaS) landscape. Wall Street dubbed the event the "SaaSpocalypse" as hundreds of billions of dollars in market value evaporated from software companies amid investor fears that autonomous AI agents would render legacy per-seat licensing models obsolete.

CRM data by YCharts.

Yet CoWork's disruption actually plays directly into the hands of both Salesforce and Zoom. Both companies have woven Anthropic's capabilities into their core offerings -- quietly transforming a potential threat from Claude into a structural tailwind. For both Salesforce and Zoom, Claude isn't merely a glorified plug-in. Rather, the AI model is becoming a foundational layer of their offerings that strengthens the companies' positions as core hubs for hybrid and enterprise workflows.

Both Salesforce and Zoom benefit from Anthropic's growth through tighter product synergies, improved engagement with users, and the ability to upsell new premium features. In turn, when Anthropic's models achieve new breakthroughs, both Salesforce's and Zoom's platforms inherently become more indispensable to their users -- which should result in higher subscription renewals and expanded revenues.

In my view, select software incumbents like Salesforce and Zoom offer investors a balanced way to participate in Anthropic's upside: Shareholders get stakes in established businesses with proven competitive moats and high-margin recurring revenue driven by accelerating AI adoption.

While Anthropic's IPO will dominate the headlines, smart investors can gain leveraged exposure to the AI unicorn through two companies already generating diversified revenues and strong cash flows from their AI-powered services.

Adam Spatacco has positions in Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Atlassian, Palantir Technologies, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Snowflake, Workday, and Zoom Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.