Two of the biggest names in artificial intelligence are inching toward the public markets at the same time.
According to MSN, OpenAI and Anthropic both recently filed confidential S-1 documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission — the paperwork companies submit when they intend to go public. A confidential filing lets a company begin the IPO process privately, before its financial details are released to the public. MSN reports that both companies could go public by the end of the year.
The move has already set investors scrambling for ways to place bets before either stock actually trades. Inc. reports that while the OpenAI IPO "isn't here yet," prediction markets are already making aggressive wagers on how and when it might happen.
Meanwhile, the financial plumbing to speculate on these companies is being built in real time. According to Seeking Alpha, Coinbase has launched pre-IPO perpetual futures tied to both Anthropic and OpenAI — contracts that let traders bet on the firms' values before they list. Seeking Alpha notes this follows a similar product Coinbase rolled out tied to Elon Musk's SpaceX.
For ordinary investors, MSN points out that certain exchange-traded funds (ETFs) already offer indirect exposure to OpenAI and Anthropic, effectively letting people "own them today" through funds that hold stakes in the privately held companies.
Why it matters: OpenAI and Anthropic are at the center of the AI boom, and public listings would give everyday investors their first direct shot at owning the companies driving it — while the rush of pre-IPO futures and ETFs shows how hungry the market already is to bet on AI's future.