The funds that already own Anthropic

Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude, the chatbot that the firm judged too potent for public release earlier this year, has signalled its intention to float on the stock market, potentially in the autumn.

Naturally, individual investors will not be able to buy its shares directly until then. But some British investment trusts already have stakes in the company and offer a way to gain at least indirect access to Anthropic straight away.

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Here are those trusts’ current holdings in the firm:

Baillie Gifford US Growth: 7.5% of trust assets

Schiehallion Fund: 7.3% of trust assets

Scottish Mortgage: 2.6% of trust assets 

Source: Association of Investment Companies, 7 June. Trusts with less than 1% exposure omitted

All three trusts are managed by Baillie Gifford, an Edinburgh-based fund manager that has built a reputation for investing in transformative growth companies. Scottish Mortgage’s market size qualifies it for a place in the FTSE 100 and it has frequently ranked among the top selling investment trusts on the Fidelity platform. It is among a handful of companies that were investors in SpaceX ahead of its own floatation, as we have reported here: The funds that already invest in SpaceX

In its annual report for the year to March, Scottish Mortgage said: ‘Anthropic surpassed $30bn of annualised revenue by April 2026, up from around $9bn at the end of 2025 and nearly $1bn at the end of 2024, making it one of the fastest-growing companies in history.’

• Read: What’s going on at resurgent Scottish Mortgage?

Anthropic filed confidential flotation documents with American regulators last week. No timetable has yet been set but some analysts expect the initial public offering (IPO) to take place in the autumn. The company’s most recent private sale of shares to investors valued it at $965bn, so a flotation could propel it into the select club of companies valued at more than $1 trillion. The three trusts mentioned are concentrated growth portfolios with significant exposure to private companies and can be considerably more volatile than a typical global equity fund.

What about OpenAI?

In view of investment trust shareholders’ ability to own pre-flotation stakes in Anthropic and, as we reported here, SpaceX, investors may be wondering if they can invest in OpenAI, Anthropic’s key rival and the company behind ChatGPT, this way. Unfortunately, it seems not; the Association of Investment Companies, the trusts’ trade body, said it was ‘not aware’ of any stakes in OpenAI held by investment trusts.

Important information - investors should note that the views expressed may no longer be current and may have already been acted upon. Overseas investments will be affected by movements in currency exchange rates. Reference to specific securities should not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell these securities and is included for the purposes of illustration only. Shares in investment trusts are listed on the London Stock Exchange and their price is affected by supply and demand. The investment trust can gain additional exposure to the market, known as gearing, potentially increasing volatility. This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice.