This year is an exciting year for investors, with the initial public offerings (IPOs) of some of the world’s most exciting technology companies, including Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) and the upcoming artificial intelligence (AI) firm Anthropic. The latter is largely expected to take place as early as Nov 16. 

While retail investors do not have direct access to Anthropic’s IPO, they can still gain exposure to the firm through feeder funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Anthropic publicly filed for its IPO on Oct 26 and released its S-1, the prospectus a company must file with the Securities and Exchange Commission before selling shares to the public. It could be one of the largest IPOs in history, with its valuation potentially reaching US$1.5 trillion (RM6.1 trillion) to US$2 trillion. The latter would surpass SpaceX’s valuation of about US$1.8 trillion at its IPO in June.

While IPO shares are typically allocated shortly before trading begins, retail investors can gain early exposure to Anthropic through feeder funds, including the Principal Global Technology Fund, which feeds into the Franklin Technology Fund, and the Franklin US Opportunities Fund, offered by Franklin Templeton Asset Management (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, which feeds into the target fund with the same name. 

However, the two funds' total exposure to Anthropic is minimal. 

According to Morningstar, the Franklin Technology Fund held 0.13% in “Anthropic Pbc Prf USD Npv Ser F1” and 0.10% in “Anthropic Pbc Prf USD Npv Ser H-1” as at Sept 30, a combined 0.23%. These likely indicate Anthropic preferred shares in US dollars (USD), with no par value, from its Series F and Series H funding rounds.

Meanwhile, the Franklin US Opportunities Fund, a wholesale feeder fund, held 0.66% in “Anthropic Pbc Prf USD Npv Ser F1” shares as at Sept 30, according to Morningstar.

The top five holdings of the Franklin Technology Fund during the same period were NVIDIA Corp (8.29%), Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd ADR (5.65%), Alphabet Inc Class C (5.54%), Microsoft Corp (5.24%) and Broadcom Inc (5.01%).

For the Franklin US Opportunities Fund, they were NVIDIA Corp (9.89%), Alphabet Inc Class A (6.59%), Apple Inc (5.9%), Microsoft Corp (5.31%) and Amazon.com Inc (4.08%).

Investors can also access Anthropic through US-listed ETFs, including the KraneShares Public-Private AI & Technology ETF (AGIX), Corgi MANGOS ETF (MN) and Tema Photonics & Optical ETF (LAZR).

AGIX’s portfolio had 2.3% exposure to Anthropic as at Oct 27, according to Morningstar. KraneShares announced in March 2025 that AGIX was one of the first US-listed ETFs to invest directly in a private company. Anthropic represented 4.45% of AGIX’s net assets at that time.

Both MN and LAZR are relatively new products, launched on Oct 2 and June 30 this year, respectively. They are also managed by relatively new ETF issuers, Corgi Invest and Tema ETFs, founded in 2025 and 2022, respectively.

According to Morningstar, MN’s portfolio had 8.95% exposure to Anthropic as at Oct 27, through derivatives known as swaps. Put simply, a swap is a contract in which two parties bet on the direction of Anthropic’s value and pay each other the difference.

MN has only six companies in its portfolio, namely Meta Platforms, Anthropic, NVIDIA Corp, Google (Alphabet Inc), OpenAI and SpaceX, whose initials form the ETF’s name, “MANGOS”. Its exposure to OpenAI is also through swaps, according to Morningstar. 

LAZR had 9.84% exposure to Anthropic through a special purpose vehicle, according to Morningstar, during the same period.

Its top five holdings were Lumentum Holdings Inc (20.19%), AXT Inc (10.49%), Anthropic SPV Exposure (9.84%), Aixtron SE (7.69%) and LandMark Optoelectronics Corp (6.04%). The full name of the ETF is Tema Photonics & Optical ETF.