Anthropic IPO: How to Buy Shares and What to Expect on Day 1

After Anthropic released its S-1 filing to the public ahead of its much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO), it appears on track for a market debut as early as the week of Nov. 16. With that, many investors are preparing for the opportunity to own shares in one of the first pure-play artificial intelligence (AI) companies to hit the market since ChatGPT from OpenAI took the world by storm roughly four years ago in November 2022.

With the IPO almost here, you can dive into not only how retail investors can purchase shares but also what to expect on the very first day of trading, as well as some more long-term IPO trends.

How to buy Anthropic shares on day one

Before the maker of the chatbot Claude debuts its shares to the public, the most important thing to know is that there will be two different prices discussed the day before and the day of the IPO.

Typically, a company sets its IPO price the day before retail investors can buy the stock. As a recent example, Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) priced its IPO at $135 on June 11. Purchasing shares at that price is typically reserved for accredited investors, hedge funds, and large institutions. In comparison, most retail investors had to wait until SpaceX shares debuted to the public on June 12, with the stock price opening at $150.

Essentially, there isn't a workaround for retail investors trying to buy Anthropic ahead of its IPO. The good news, however, is that it's a rather straightforward process to buy shares once it does go public.

On the Anthropic IPO date, an investor can log in to their brokerage account and search for Anthropic; it will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker ANT. For those who don't yet have a brokerage account, The Motley Fool has a helpful resource on the best online brokers and trading platforms.

Now that I've gone over how to buy shares of Anthropic when it goes public, using SpaceX again as an example, let's look at what investors could expect once shares start trading.

IPOs are known for volatile price swings

The first thing to know is that, depending on stock demand, retail investors may not be able to fill their entire orders. With SpaceX, some retail investors found themselves in that situation on its first day of trading to the public.

Just because SpaceX's stock performed well on its first day doesn't mean Anthropic will follow the same path. Still, it can be useful to be familiar with some of the short- and long-term possibilities.

On June 12, after opening at $150, SpaceX traded to an intraday high of $176.52 before closing at $160.95. Just a few days later, on June 16, the stock price hit its current all-time high of $225.64. If Anthropic follows a similar path, there could be a lot of early excitement that drives the stock price higher when it debuts to the public.

That said, like SpaceX, when the initial enthusiasm wears off, the stock could quickly reverse course. After reaching that all-time high, the stock price began a rapid decline, falling all the way to $104.83 on Aug. 3. It's moved higher since then but has still fluctuated wildly, closing at $148.58 on Oct. 27, just below the $150 price at which it opened to the public on June 12.

Looking even further out, not all IPOs are home runs, as the stock price can struggle to find its footing for months and even years. According to research from The Motley Fool, five of the biggest IPOs of all time by total capital raised had negative returns after the first three months as public companies. Beyond that, three out of the 10 had negative returns five years after their public debuts.

What to consider before the Anthropic IPO

Given that the stock price action is likely to be volatile, potential shareholders should be prepared for uncertainty. That said, even if the first few days, weeks, or even months see wild price swings, that won't define Anthropic as a long-term investment.

And for anyone considering investing, there's no pressure to invest as soon as the company goes public. If Anthropic can make retail investors wealthy, it won't happen on the very first day of trading.

Jack Delaney has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Nasdaq. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.