If Anthropic Stock Trades Like SpaceX, Investors May Wish They Owned Alphabet Instead
If Anthropic Stock Trades Like SpaceX, Investors May Wish They Owned Alphabet Instead
Jack Delaney, The Motley FoolThu, August 13, 2026 at 1:05 PM UTC
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Key Points -
Anthropic is expected to go public as early as September.
Alphabet owns a 14% stake in the AI start-up.
If an investor is worried that Anthropic stock will trade as choppy as SpaceX's stock price has since it went public, Alphabet could be an investment worth considering.
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Investors who liked the potential upside that Space Exploration Technologies(NASDAQ: SPCX) offers but wanted to avoid the risk of owning the stock directly could have invested in Alphabet(NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) instead of buying SpaceX stock when it went public on June 12. That's because the tech giant itself was a strategic investor in SpaceX. As of June 30, Alphabet's stake in SpaceX is worth $94.1 billion.
Owning Alphabet would have given shareholders exposure to SpaceX, while avoiding the volatile price swings the artificial intelligence (AI) and space company has experienced since its public debut.
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That same dynamic may play out again, as the highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of the start-up Anthropic could be right around the corner.
Image source: Getty Images.
The benefit of investing in established companies
The Anthropic IPO could happen as soon as September, according to The Wall Street Journal. And with a reported 14% stake in Anthropic, Alphabet is a strategic investor in Anthropic that will be rooting for its success as much as anyone.
As SpaceX has shown, however, Anthropic could have a bumpy ride out of the gate. The SpaceX stock price has been on a wild ride since it went public, trading in a range between $104.83 and $225.64.
The markets may be still trying to figure out how to value SpaceX, but Alphabet already has a track record of success and reliability. While it may no longer be a monster growth stock, it's still setting itself up to be a leader in AI, which can add plenty of fuel for the stock price to still outperform the broader markets over the next several years. And with its $94.1 billion worth of SpaceX shares, Alphabet can benefit from SpaceX's success without being reliant on it. That same type of situation could also unfold with Anthropic.
A dominant cloud business with a side of Anthropic
Anthropic has plenty of promise, running what's widely considered to be one of the most advanced AI models, Claude. That dominant position is helping it steadily increase its revenue; according to a CNBC report, Anthropic was expected to generate $10.9 billion in sales in the second quarter of 2026, which would be the company's first profitable quarter and top its 2025 full-year sales.
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That said, if Anthropic trades similarly to SpaceX, there could be plenty of volatility early on. That's why investors who understand Anthropic's potential but are more risk-averse may want to consider owning Alphabet as an indirect way to invest in Anthropic.
With Alphabet, you get a lot for your money. It has the third-largest global market share in cloud computing (as of May) and, in its 2026 second-quarter earnings report, reported that its cloud revenue grew 82% year over year to $24.8 billion. It also has YouTube, which hauled in $11 billion in ad revenue in the second quarter, and owns the most popular search engine in the world. On top of all that, it also owns that 14% stake in Anthropic.
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Jack Delaney has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Source: “AOL Money”
