Investment trusts that own Claude’s parent company Anthropic say SpaceX showed them a stock market listing does not force a decision on the shares, with plans ranging from selling out entirely but gradually to trimming but maintaining a large position.
Anthropic filed publicly on 26 October to list its Class A shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker ANT. The company was last valued at $965bn in May, on first-half revenue of $16.3bn, up from $1.2bn a year earlier.
The filing arrived after a bad stretch for chip stocks. FE Analytics data show the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor index fell 21.3% between 23 June and 2 November, while the MSCI AC World lost 1.2%, as the chart below shows.
Price performance of Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor index vs global equities since 23 June 2026
Source: FE Analytics. Price return in US dollars between 23 Jun and 2 Nov 2026
Technology shares also fell sharply in the final week of October as investors questioned the scale of AI spending, and Anthropic has also been subject to scrutiny. Ben Yearsley, investing director at Fairview Investing, said its technology is “extraordinary” but also that “whether eventual profits justify the valuations is less certain”.
Despite the doubts, markets are preparing for an event of the same magnitude as SpaceX’s IPO this summer, which could give fund managers a better insight and blueprint of how to respond to Anthropic’s coming to public markets.
Several UK-listed investment trusts hold Anthropic (as well as other mega tech companies preparing to IPO, as previously covered on Trustnet), including Baillie Gifford's US Growth (6.1%), Scottish Mortgage (2.5%) and Schiehallion (5.8%) funds (figures according to the Association of Investment Companies’ estimates as of 7 July), as well as RIT Capital Partners and HarbourVest Global Private Equity (HVPE).
Below, Trustnet asked their managers how they plan to play the upcoming IPO.
HVPE’s Hickman: Realise the position over time
Richard Hickman, managing director at HVPE, said Anthropic made up 0.7% of the trust’s portfolio at the end of October. That makes it a relatively large individual company position for the trust, though still a small part of the portfolio overall.
“As we have seen with SpaceX, the transition from private to public ownership does not necessarily create a single liquidity event around an IPO or a cliff-edge end to a lock-up period [the period after a listing in which early shareholders are barred from selling],” he said.
“These dynamics do not fundamentally change our approach to Anthropic, where our exposure remains within a highly diversified portfolio.”
The decision to sell out is one of process discipline, as HVPE and HarbourVest are private markets investors, so the trust “would not generally seek to retain listed holdings over the long term”.
“If Anthropic were to list, the ambition would therefore be to realise the position over time,” Hickman said.
Baillie Gifford’s Majstrova: Anthropic is well positioned to capture a disproportionate share of opportunity
This is not a constraint for Baillie Gifford trusts, which can continue to own a company after it becomes public, as Lucie Majstrova, investment specialist in the private companies’ team at the firm, explained.
“We need to ask what Anthropic can become, what return is available from the valuation today and what size of holding makes sense within each portfolio. You can remain very enthusiastic about a company, continue to own it in meaningful size and still trim it to fund the next opportunity. Those aren’t contradictory positions,” she said.
“The decision is about the remaining upside, the valuation and the other opportunities available to us. We believe that Anthropic is well positioned to capture a disproportionate share of the economic opportunity [coming from AI].”
RIT’s Fanari: We’re happy owners of Anthropic
Maggie Fanari, chief executive of J. Rothschild Capital Management, manager of RIT Capital Partners, said Anthropic was 1.7% of RIT’s net-asset value at 30 June 2026. It is one of the trust’s largest private direct positions, and RIT also holds an indirect stake through fund partners.
Once the lock-up period expires, RIT Capital’s plan is to “assess whether to retain it as a direct quoted equities investment or realise some or all of our position”.
“Since listing, SpaceX has demonstrated that the growth story does not necessarily end when a company enters the public markets,” she said.
“Ultimately, however, we’re happy owners of Anthropic. We invested relatively early in its scaling journey and remain excited about its upcoming debut on the public markets.”
Going forward, the manager said she expected “fewer but larger winners in technology”, particularly in public markets, and that she and her team are “focused on category leaders whose advantages compound over time”.
“The company’s recent IPO filing has also reinforced our enthusiasm about the scale of the opportunity. Its financial results demonstrate exceptional growth, significant enterprise adoption and, importantly, positive operating cash flow for the first time.”