Why buying the IPO will be hard
Anthropic is lining up a stock offering that could put the company around the $1.5 trillion mark. Even though Japan and Australia sit inside the offshore allocation, sky-high demand and other limits mean many investors in the region will likely be shut out.
That is pushing cash toward workarounds. Instead of owning Anthropic shares, investors are hunting for exposure through companies tied to the firm, derivatives that track its valuation, and hardware makers that stand to gain from AI buildouts.
The equity side doors
One path is through firms with ownership stakes or formal ties to Anthropic. SK Telecom's early bet has grown into a stake worth multiple billions, and the Korean carrier has a commercial tie-up with the US AI developer. Commonwealth Bank of Australia bought in more than a year ago and put the value of its interest at over $1 billion by the end of June. NEC became Anthropic's first Japan based global partner in April and has since teamed up with Anthropic and eight Japanese financial institutions on projects to build AI tools for finance.
Those links have shown up in prices. NEC is 45% above its June trough. Commonwealth Bank of Australia has advanced 8% this month. SK Telecom has gained 9% over the past two sessions, though the stock remains below its June high.
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Chips, servers and crypto bets
The biggest swing in Asia runs through semis and infrastructure. Anthropic's planned compute buildout of roughly $800 billion points to more business for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., along with memory suppliers SK Hynix Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. The prospectus underscores that Anthropic relies on advanced chips made by TSMC and flags tight supply at the Taiwanese foundry as a major worry. It also calls out SK Hynix and Samsung as key producers of high bandwidth memory used in AI systems.
"It will spill over to chip names," said Hui Ling Loh of ACG Management Pte., where she serves as managing director. The caution from the sidelines is just as clear. "People are probably better off sticking with Anthropic's suppliers," said Vey-Sern Ling of Union Bancaire Privee, where he is a managing director. He described the float as a hyped IPO of an unprofitable business with unclear profitability, facing heavy competition and technical chokepoints all at once.
Derivatives platforms have moved fast. In May, OKX listed Anthropic linked perpetual futures that do not expire, and Binance followed with similar contracts in June. On Hyperliquid's EntropyIO venue, those futures implied a market value near $1.88 trillion. Brokers including PU Prime have also rolled out contracts for difference that let traders wager on price moves without owning any shares.
What it means for your portfolio
How a mega Nasdaq debut is received is an open question, especially with fresh worries about funding capital-intensive AI efforts and whether the payoffs arrive. Indirect trades also come with sector specific risks that have little to do with Anthropic itself. For a daily snapshot before markets open, a new column called Before the Asian Bell will publish around 7 a.m. Hong Kong time, and readers can subscribe via the sign up link.
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