3 Magnificent AI Stocks to Buy Before the Anthropic IPO

Following in the footsteps of SpaceX and Cerebras, Anthropic recently filed an S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, a key step on the road to an initial public offering (IPO). That move has added fuel to the already fervid excitement around some highly anticipated IPOs. Anthropic, which develops the Claude family of AI models, currently boasts a valuation of almost $1 trillion, based on the value at which it priced its latest equity sale. Yet the hype around this type of hot IPO may cause investors to overlook a simple truth: Retail investors can already secure meaningful exposure to Anthropic's growth.

Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) have each forged strategic partnerships with Anthropic while simultaneously committing billions of dollars in equity investments. Owning shares of these hyperscalers offers a diversified, multilayered bet on the same AI tailwinds fueling Anthropic -- but without the volatility of an IPO stock.

Image source: Getty Images.

How Anthropic works with hyperscalers

During the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, Amazon has become Anthropic's most entrenched cloud partner. Through Amazon Web Services (AWS), Anthropic runs the bulk of its training and inference workloads on Amazon's custom chips -- Trainium and Inferentia.

Back in April, Anthropic committed more than $100 billion over the next decade to secure additional AWS capacity -- locking in up to 5 gigawatts of computing power. As part of the deal, Amazon invested $5 billion in Anthropic. Notably, this capital is on top of the $8 billion Amazon had already deployed to Anthropic during earlier funding rounds. Moreover, Amazon will potentially invest another $20 billion should Anthropic achieve certain commercial milestones.

Through the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alphabet has also positioned itself as both an investor and infrastructure provider to Anthropic. A couple of months ago, Alphabet announced that it planned to commit up to $40 billion to Anthropic, contingent upon it meeting performance targets.

However, Anthropic's partnership with Google extends beyond fundraising. It also has access to Google's custom AI chips, known as Tensor Processing Units (TPUs).

For Anthropic, this relationship helps expand its cloud distribution beyond AWS while also enabling access to Alphabet's global data center footprint. Meanwhile, Alphabet can monetize its relationship with Anthropic through recurring cloud-consumption fees. This helps enhance Alphabet's product offerings and keep its AI ecosystem competitive.

Microsoft entered Anthropic's orbit later than Amazon and Alphabet. Back in November, Microsoft committed to investing up to $5 billion in Anthropic as part of a broader deal with Nvidia. In turn, Anthropic agreed to purchase $30 billion of Azure's computing capacity. This structure essentially turned Microsoft into a third distribution network for the GPUs and specialized silicon that Anthropic needs for its Claude models.

Better buy: The "Magnificent Seven" or the Anthropic IPO?

In my view, owning this trifecta of cloud infrastructure providers delivers similar upside potential to what growth investors will hope to capture from the Anthropic IPO. But it quietly provides a few meaningful advantages, too.

1. Diversification: Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft are mature businesses with dozens of product lines that generate reliable cash flows.
2. Dual revenue streams: Each of these hyperscalers generates ongoing cloud and infrastructure revenue from Anthropic's unrelenting appetite for compute capacity. This creates a high-margin annuity that persists among them, regardless of where public market sentiment stands regarding Anthropic itself.
3. Equity participation: The big three cloud providers already hold equity stakes in Anthropic. So they are each positioned to realize gains once its stock lists on public exchanges.

While the AI infrastructure boom is real and accelerating, I think the most durable winners may not be the frontier labs grabbing the headlines. By investing across the cloud giants that quietly power, fund, and continuously profit from Anthropic, smart investors gain a more balanced, lower-risk exposure to the same transformative AI technology without single-stock volatility risk.

Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.