Anthropic PBC's artificial intelligence tools have created significant market disruptions, yet stock investors hoping to profit from the rise of this private startup have few viable investment targets. Over the past month, investors have been selling shares of companies potentially disrupted by AI tools like Anthropic's Claude Cowork. Sectors including software, legal services, wealth management, and transportation logistics have experienced substantial sell-offs, driven by concerns that such AI tools could undermine traditional businesses' growth, demand, and pricing power. However, unlike other industry giants, stock investors lack clear avenues to bet directly on Anthropic's success. The absence of publicly listed companies with direct or indirect ties to Anthropic has left traders frustrated, forcing them to passively avoid a long list of stocks plummeting due to Anthropic's advancements. Daniel O'Regan, Managing Director of Equity Trading at Mizuho Securities, commented: "There are essentially no pure-play Anthropic stocks in the public markets, leaving investors with no direct participation. Given its current influence, this is genuinely frustrating—like an itch you can't scratch. We've already seen numerous stocks suffer because of Anthropic." In contrast, OpenAI, which is also privately held, has established partnerships with several publicly traded companies like Oracle, AMD, and CoreWeave, providing investors with ideal alternative investment options. Investors looking to bet on Gemini can easily buy shares of Alphabet or invest in infrastructure supporters like Broadcom, Celestica, Lumentum, and TTM Technologies. Since early last year, a basket of stocks linked to OpenAI has surged over 40%, while a group associated with Alphabet has jumped nearly 190%, both significantly outperforming the S&P 500's 17% gain. Another challenge for investors seeking exposure to Anthropic is the company's diversified approach to computing power and hardware. In its latest funding announcement, which valued the company at $380 billion post-money, Anthropic stated that its Claude models are trained and run on chips from Amazon, Alphabet, and NVIDIA, and are deployed across Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Although these four tech giants are all investors in Anthropic, they compete with one another and have varying degrees of ties to other AI labs, meaning no single company has a unique relationship with Anthropic. O'Regan noted: "There's significant overlap among these popular investment targets. If you want to invest in Anthropic, buying Alphabet doesn't logically follow." Investors searching for Anthropic-related opportunities are not entirely without options. Early January reports of rising usage of an open-source AI assistant compatible with Anthropic's Claude drove a rally in Cloudflare's stock. The company's CEO stated in an earnings call earlier this month that Cloudflare aims to "partner with great companies like Anthropic." Datadog has also emerged as a candidate. Several Wall Street analysts, including J.P. Morgan's Mark Murphy, believe the company's reference to an "eight-figure deal with a leading AI model company" in its latest earnings call points to Anthropic. Additionally, analysts have highlighted Zoom's $51 million investment in Anthropic in 2023 as an undervalued positive. After Baird suggested the stake could be worth $2–4 billion under different dilution assumptions, the video conferencing company's shares surged over 11% last month. SK Telecom, which invested $100 million in Anthropic in 2023, has seen its stock soar more than 60% since mid-January. However, the rapid rise prompted Bank of America analysts to downgrade the South Korean mobile operator to underperform this week, citing overvaluation. Snowflake, previously caught in the software stock sell-off, announced a $200 million partnership with Anthropic last year to integrate Claude AI models into its platform. Nate Miller, Vice President of Product Development at Amplify ETFs, remarked: "There are several key partners that can serve as proxies for Anthropic, but none offer a one-to-one match. This is frustrating, and the high number of private companies in this space makes it particularly challenging for investors." Nevertheless, stock investors seeking pure Anthropic exposure may not have to wait long: The company is reportedly preparing for an IPO, potentially by year-end. Similarly, OpenAI has held informal discussions with banks about a possible public listing around the same time. Miller added: "Saying 'relief' might be too strong, but these companies eventually going public would undoubtedly resolve a major hurdle in accessing AI investments. Their capabilities far surpass others'."