OpenAI & Anthropic IPOs: How to Actually Take Part

Two Trillion-Dollar Filings in Ten Days

In early June 2026, the two biggest names in AI filed for IPOs almost back to back. Anthropic confidentially submitted a draft S-1 to the SEC on June 1. OpenAI announced its own confidential S-1 a week later, on June 8 — in their words, "we expect it to leak so we're just announcing it."

Ever since, the same question fills every investing forum: how do I buy in before everyone else?

Here is the sceptic's answer, fact-checked against official sources on 24 July 2026. Spoiler: most of the "get in early" routes you'll see advertised are either closed to you, paused, or more expensive than they look — and the companies themselves have committed to no dates at all.

We hold no position in either company and no affiliate deal depends on which route you pick. This is a map, not a pitch.

Disclaimer: This article is educational. Broker availability, fees, and country acceptance change without notice. Tax treatment depends on your specific residency and citizenship. Confirm current terms on each broker's site and consult a licensed advisor for personalized guidance. BrokerFit lists brokers in alphabetical order and does not weight placement by affiliate relationship.

1. What Has Actually Been Filed (Less Than the Headlines Say)

A confidential S-1 is an option to go public, not a promise. Both companies said so themselves:

• Anthropic: "The number of shares to be offered and the price have not yet been set." No exchange, no date, no valuation appears in the announcement.
• OpenAI: "We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company."

Press reports talk about listings later in 2026 at valuations approaching a trillion dollars each — but those numbers come from unnamed sources, not from the filings. Anything you read about ticker symbols, retail allocations or lock-up terms for these two IPOs is, as of today, speculation: a confidential draft S-1 discloses none of it.

Practical takeaway: you cannot "sign up" for either IPO today. Anyone selling you access right now is selling something else — usually one of the routes below.

2. The Three Doors (Only One Is Fully Open)

There are exactly three ways to own a company like this, and they are very different products:

1. Pre-IPO shares — buying existing private shares on a secondary marketplace, before any listing.
2. IPO allocation — subscribing at the offer price through a broker in the days before trading starts.
3. Buying at listing — placing a regular order once the stock trades publicly.

Doors one and two are where the hype lives. Let's open them.

3. Pre-IPO Reality Check: Mostly Locked, Sometimes Broken

Secondary marketplaces let existing shareholders (mostly ex-employees) sell to outside investors. For US platforms that means accredited investors — an income/net-worth bar most retail investors in the EU and CIS don't clear, before you even reach the residency questions.

And right now the two companies are not even symmetric:

• Forge Global showed a live indicative price for OpenAI shares ($721.85 at our check on 24 July 2026). But its Anthropic page states plainly: "This company does not allow direct share transfers or fund investments at this time." One AI giant trades on the secondary market; the other has switched transfers off.
• EquityZen maintains profile pages for both companies, but every number — price, minimums, whether a deal is even open — sits behind accreditation checks. What its public pages confirm is only the mechanism: funds for accredited investors, subject to availability.
• Linqto, long marketed as the "retail-friendly" pre-IPO platform, filed for Chapter 11 in 2025. As of 24 July 2026 its own homepage still says "transactions on the Linqto platform have paused." Do not treat it as a working purchase channel, whatever an old YouTube video tells you.

One more caution: according to press reports, Anthropic has warned that shares offered through unauthorized platforms may be void on its books — and Forge's own transfer block is consistent with that stance. When the issuer refuses to recognize a transfer, "owning" the share means owning a lawsuit.

Practical takeaway: for a non-accredited investor in the EU or CIS, the pre-IPO door is effectively closed for Anthropic and expensive-and-narrow for OpenAI. That's not a tragedy — see door three.

4. IPO Allocation from the EU/CIS: Who Actually Offers It

When the IPOs do get dates, allocation access will run through brokers. Among the brokers we cover:

• Freedom24 is the only broker in our pool whose core product is retail IPO participation. Its official FAQ distinguishes two products: standard IPO subscription (pre-listing allocation — which the broker's own materials contrast with lock-up-free alternatives, i.e. expect a lock-up) and pre-market day-one trading ("no allocation and no lock-up period, no minimum participation amount" — their words). The exact current lock-up length, minimum ticket and allocation fee live in Freedom24's fee schedule appendices and change over time — check the live document before committing money, and remember: allocation is never guaranteed.
• EXANTE facilitates IPO subscriptions through its counterparties — but only via your account manager, not self-service. Their support docs (verified accessible 24 July 2026, last updated December 2023) list a 3.5% allocation fee plus $0.02 per share for NYSE/Nasdaq names. Confirm current terms before relying on a page that old.
• Interactive Brokers has an IPO Subscriptions feature in Client Portal, but per IBKR's own X account the firm "generally does not offer clients the ability to participate in an IPO of a US company" — non-US offerings are case by case. Since OpenAI and Anthropic would both be US listings, do not plan your access around IBKR allocation.

Note what's missing from this list: any confirmation that these specific IPOs will offer retail tranches at all. SpaceX set a generous precedent with its 30% retail tranche in June — but until an amended, public S-1 appears, nobody can promise you the same here.

5. The Boring Truth: Door Three Usually Wins

Here's the math the hype never shows. The pre-IPO and allocation routes carry: accreditation walls, allocation lotteries, 3–5% fees, lock-ups that hold your shares through the most volatile weeks, and — in Anthropic's case — an issuer actively blocking transfers.

Buying at listing through any low-cost broker carries: the risk of paying the first-day pop, and a commission measured in cents.

If your conviction on AI is a ten-year thesis, the difference between the offer price and the day-one close is noise. If your plan is to flip the pop — recall that allocation programs punish flippers, and lock-ups exist precisely to stop you. Run your own numbers in our fee calculator, and compare brokers who'll let you buy either stock the ordinary way on day one in our comparisons.

And on valuations: at the press-reported targets, both companies would debut around the trillion-dollar mark — priced, as SpaceX was, for a future with no room for error. That's not a prediction of doom; it's a reminder that "getting in early" at a price that assumes perfection is not obviously early at all.

FAQ

Can I buy OpenAI or Anthropic shares right now? OpenAI: only as an accredited investor on secondary marketplaces like Forge, at prices set by that thin market. Anthropic: effectively no — the company currently blocks direct share transfers on major platforms.

When are the IPOs? No dates exist. Both filings are confidential drafts; OpenAI explicitly said timing "may be a while." Treat any specific date you read as a guess.

Which broker gives IPO access from the EU or CIS? Among brokers we cover: Freedom24 is built around retail IPO subscriptions; EXANTE offers subscriptions via account managers with a 3.5% allocation fee; IBKR generally does not offer US IPO participation. Terms change — verify on the broker's own pages.

Is pre-IPO investing a scam? The regulated platforms are real businesses — but the product is illiquid, fee-heavy, accredited-only, and issuer-permission-dependent, as Anthropic's transfer block shows. The scams cluster around fake "access" to hyped names; if the issuer hasn't authorized it, your shares may be void.

What's the safest way to get exposure? Wait for the listing and buy through a regulated low-cost broker — or accept that a trillion-dollar debut may be fully priced and do nothing. Both are legitimate strategies; only one requires reading fee schedules tonight.

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Facts verified 24 July 2026 against official company and platform pages. IPO terms for both companies are not yet set; we'll update this guide when public filings appear.