Two of the biggest names in artificial intelligence could soon be available to ordinary stock-market investors. According to The Motley Fool, both OpenAI and Anthropic could go public by the end of the year, a milestone that would let everyday investors buy shares directly for the first time.
The timing would put the two AI labs alongside SpaceX, which The Globe and Mail and AOL report has already gone public. Coverage from The Globe and Mail frames the choice for investors as whether to buy SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI all at once, while AOL poses the same question about which is the best IPO stock to buy and hold.
The newsletter AI: Reset to Zero describes a "tight IPO clock" for OpenAI and Anthropic that lines up with Elon Musk's SpaceX and xAI. According to the MSN summary of The Globe and Mail's reporting, the two AI start-ups could join SpaceX as the newest members of the "trillion-dollar club" if they list.
Investors who want exposure before any IPO are not entirely shut out today. The Motley Fool, Yahoo Finance, and AOL all point to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that already hold stakes tied to these companies, offering a way to own a slice of them now rather than waiting for a public listing.
It's worth noting these reports describe what could happen; the sources frame the year-end timing as expected rather than confirmed.
Why it matters: OpenAI and Anthropic are central players in the AI boom, and public listings would open some of the most closely watched private companies in tech to everyday investors — while also testing how much the market is willing to pay for AI.