Anthropic's IPO Will Lead to Windfall Profits for These 3 Early Investors
Key Points
Initial public offering (IPO) mania is taking hold on Wall Street, with SpaceX etching its name in the record books four weeks ago.
Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO with regulators on June 1, paving the way for what could be a trillion-dollar public debut.
Three of Anthropic's earliest investors have enjoyed otherworldly returns on their invested capital.
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Move over, artificial intelligence (AI) -- initial public offering (IPO) mania is taking over Wall Street. Roughly four weeks ago, Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) etched its name in the record books when it debuted, raising $85.7 billion (including the underwriters' overallotment) and nearly tripling Saudi Aramco's capital raise in December 2019.
Anthropic appears to be next. The developer of the Claude large language models is approaching a trillion-dollar valuation in private markets and confidentially filed for an IPO with regulators on June 1. When Anthropic does go public, three of its earliest investors, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and Zoom Communications (NASDAQ: ZM), will be sitting on windfall profits.
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Image source: Getty Images.
Alphabet
Though investors know Alphabet as the brainchild behind globally dominant internet search engine Google, popular streaming platform YouTube, and the world's No. 3 cloud infrastructure services platform Google Cloud, it's also a remarkable early stage investor. For example, the $900 million Google invested in SpaceX in January 2015 is worth approximately $104.6 billion, as of the closing bell on July 2.
Alphabet was also an early investor in Anthropic. It scooped up a 10% stake in the company for $300 million in April 2023 and invested an additional $2 billion in October 2023, with $500 million paid upfront. In April of this year, Alphabet announced a whopping $40 billion add-on investment, with $10 billion upfront and $30 billion dependent on performance milestones.
MOST PEOPLE HAVE NO IDEA HOW GOOD OF AN INVESTOR GOOGLE IS
-- GURGAVIN (@gurgavin) June 13, 2026
6% OF SPACEX
14% OF ANTHROPIC
75% OF WAYMO
$900M INTO SPACEX IN 2015 →
NOW WORTH $115B
$13B INTO ANTHROPIC → NOW WORTH $140B
WAYMO JUST RAISED $16B AT A $126B VALUATION → GOOGLE'S STAKE WORTH ~$95B.
THOSE THREE... https://t.co/faLFBIeqq5
All told, Alphabet holds a 14% stake in Anthropic that, at a $965 billion private-market valuation, is worth about $135.1 billion.
Amazon
"Magnificent Seven" member Amazon is another juggernaut that Wall Street knows best as a dual-industry leader. Its e-commerce marketplace is globally dominant, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest cloud infrastructure services platform by total spend.
But Amazon also has incredible investment chops. It initially invested $1.25 billion in Anthropic in September 2023, followed up with a $2.75 billion add-on investment in March 2024, and deployed another $4 billion in November 2024. In April 2026, it agreed to pour another $25 billion in Anthropic, in return for Anthropic spending more than $100 billion on AWS technologies over the next decade.
As of Amazon's first-quarter operating results, the company held $74.2 billion in combined Anthropic preferred stock and convertible notes, implying that its initial investment of $8 billion had grown more than ninefold.
Image source: Getty Images.
Zoom Communications
Although it's not on the same level as Alphabet or Amazon, Zoom Communications should also expect a windfall profit once Anthropic goes public.
Most investors remember Zoom as arguably the biggest beneficiary of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees working from home fostered demand for virtual conferences and communication, making Zoom's video conferencing platform an instant hit.
However, Zoom's biggest hit might be its early investment in Anthropic via Zoom Ventures. While Zoom never fully disclosed how much it invested in Anthropic, Zoom Ventures was named in Anthropic's Series C funding round in May 2023. Zoom also disclosed $51 million for strategic investments in its fiscal quarter ending July 31, 2023.
According to a May filing by Zoom, its initial investment in Anthropic has ballooned to almost $1.3 billion, leading to an estimated windfall profit of more than $1.2 billion.
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Sean Williams has positions in Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, and Zoom Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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