Got $1,000? 2 Stocks to Own Before the Anthropic IPO.

Anthropic, the AI lab behind the Claude models, has filed confidentially to go public at a valuation reportedly nearing $1 trillion, and even Elon Musk recently called it "obviously currently the leader in AI." The trouble is you can't buy Anthropic yet. Most people looking for a back door point to its big shareholders, but there is another way in: the companies cashing Anthropic's enormous checks.

Anthropic's revenue run rate has rocketed past $30 billion, and it's spending staggering sums on chips and computing power. Here are two suppliers, worth about $1,000 split between them, that profit directly from that spending.

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1. Broadcom

Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO) makes the custom chips that power much of the AI world, and Anthropic just became one of its most important customers. Broadcom designs the Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs, that Google offers in its cloud, and Anthropic has committed to an enormous amount of that capacity: roughly 1 gigawatt coming online in 2026 and about 3.5 gigawatts more starting in 2027. To put that in perspective, analysts at Mizuho estimated Broadcom could collect around $21 billion of AI revenue tied to Anthropic in 2026 and roughly $42 billion in 2027.

That single relationship helps explain why Broadcom's leadership sees its custom AI chip business topping $100 billion in annual revenue by 2027. Owning Broadcom gives you exposure to Anthropic's computing buildout, plus a diversified giant that also dominates AI networking gear and runs a large, steady software business. You're buying an arms dealer to the entire AI race, with Anthropic as one of its biggest new clients.

2. SpaceX

It's a remarkable arrangement given that Musk once dismissed Anthropic's chances, then publicly admitted he was wrong. For investors, SpaceX offers a slice of that Anthropic revenue stream on top of its core rocket and Starlink businesses. It is the landlord to the AI leader, and that lease is a multiyear, multibillion-dollar tailwind.

Something investors should consider

I want to be straight about the trade-offs, because these are different from owning Anthropic's actual shareholders. Neither Broadcom nor SpaceX owns a piece of Anthropic, so you won't get a windfall from the IPO itself the way its equity backers might. Your upside comes from Anthropic's staying a huge customer, and that isn't guaranteed. Anthropic is reportedly exploring building its own chips, including talks with Samsung, which could eventually reduce its reliance on outside suppliers.

There's also the familiar circularity of the AI boom, where the same dollars cycle among a handful of companies, flattering everyone's numbers while the good times last. SpaceX carries an enormous valuation and real volatility as a newly public stock, and Anthropic, for all its momentum, is still burning cash to fund this spending. This is exposure to a promising trend, not a sure thing.

If you have about $1,000 and want to ride Anthropic's rise before it goes public, splitting it between Broadcom and SpaceX is a creative way to do it. Rather than betting on a stake you can't buy, you own the suppliers Anthropic is paying billions to for chips and computing, while getting two powerful businesses in their own right. My honest suggestion is to buy each for its broader story first, the custom-chip empire at Broadcom and the launch-and-Starlink machine at SpaceX, and treat the Anthropic revenue as a compelling bonus. That way you benefit whether the IPO dazzles or simply keeps the checks coming.

Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.