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Following SpaceX’s blockbuster June 2026 IPO, which allocated as much as 30% of its shares to retail investors and became the largest US IPO on record, individual investors are aggressively seeking pre-IPO access to the next wave of tech giants: Anthropic and OpenAI. Both AI companies have filed IPO paperwork within weeks of each other, and the scramble for shares is already reshaping how everyday investors interact with private markets.
The filings fueling the frenzy
Anthropic confidentially filed its S-1 on June 1, 2026, with a target NASDAQ listing by November. Valuation discussions have reportedly circled around $2 trillion, a staggering figure that reflects the company’s explosive growth trajectory. Anthropic’s annual revenue run-rate has exceeded $100 billion, and a recent $65 billion funding round pushed its private valuation to roughly $965 billion.
OpenAI followed a week later, filing its own IPO paperwork on June 8. But unlike its rival, OpenAI has pushed its public debut to 2027, leaving investors with a longer wait and more uncertainty about timing and pricing.
Platforms specializing in pre-IPO access, like Access IPOs, have reported a 30% increase in their audience, driven almost entirely by enthusiasm left over from the SpaceX listing.
How retail is getting in
Retail investors are using a mix of brokerages, specialized pre-IPO platforms, and fund vehicles to gain exposure. AngelList’s USVC fund, for example, offers indirect stakes in companies like Anthropic and OpenAI at lower investment thresholds than a direct secondary purchase would require.
But the access comes with strings. Fees on these vehicles can be substantial. Lockup periods may prevent investors from selling shares for months after an IPO. And the shares themselves are often illiquid, meaning there’s no easy exit if sentiment shifts or a listing gets delayed. OpenAI’s decision to push its IPO to 2027 is a real-time case study in that risk: investors who bought secondary shares expecting a 2026 liquidity event are now sitting on paper positions with no clear timeline.
Anthropic has taken the unusual step of publicly warning investors against trading its pre-IPO shares through unauthorized platforms. The company has gone so far as to invalidate transfers made outside of officially sanctioned sales, specifically calling out platforms like Forge Global and Hiive. If you bought Anthropic shares through an unsanctioned channel, those shares may be worth exactly nothing when the company goes public.
Why the SpaceX effect is so powerful
SpaceX’s IPO gave retail a meaningful 30% allocation, and then watching the stock perform well enough to validate the entire thesis. That experience created a template. Retail investors now believe, with some justification, that getting into a company before or during its IPO is the best way to capture outsized returns.
Historically, investment banks allocated the vast majority of IPO shares to institutional clients, with retail getting whatever was left over. The SpaceX model suggested that companies can broaden access without sacrificing demand or pricing power.
The risks hiding behind the opportunity
Inflated pre-IPO valuations are the most obvious concern. A $2 trillion valuation assumes a growth trajectory that leaves almost no room for execution missteps, regulatory headwinds, or competitive pressure from the very rival filing its own IPO a week later.
Anthropic’s decision to invalidate unauthorized secondary trades underscores a tension between the growing retail appetite for private-market access and the legal frameworks governing those markets. Companies have legitimate reasons to control their cap tables before going public, but those controls can leave retail investors holding worthless IOUs if they bought through the wrong channel.
OpenAI has already delayed its listing by at least a year. Anthropic’s November target is just that, a target.
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