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If artificial intelligence (AI) is about to usher in the next industrial revolution, then Stocks and Shares ISA holders will probably want a piece of the action. Stocks like Nvidia or Computacenter offer exposure to the hardware side of things. And stocks like Alphabet or SpaceX have AI divisions. But there isn’t really a ‘pure’ AI play on the public markets – or is there?
That could all be changing in the next month when Anthropic stock becomes available to buy in – and possibly supercharge – Stocks and Shares ISAs. Let’s take a look at the details.
Pureplay
Anthropic is set to go ahead in November with what might be the biggest IPO of all time. As mentioned, this is arguably the first chance for an investor to get their hands on a pureplay artificial intelligence stock.
What’s the attraction? It comes down to Claude – a large language model that’s reputed to be perhaps the best around. Claude Code is often the first name when it comes to AI used to help software developers. Writing code might be one of, if not the best, use cases for AI.
This is borne out in sales growth too. Anthropic saw revenue grow from $400m in 2024, to $5bn in 2025, to $65bn in 2026. Rapid.
The downside? This is shaping up to be a very pricey public offering. The IPO is expected to lead to a market value in the region of $2trn. Straight off the bat, that would make it the eighth biggest company in the world.
It would also mean an eye-watering price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of around 30. For context, other tech titans like Nvidia or Alphabet trade at 19 and 10 times sales, respectively. More traditional companies like those in energy, retail or defence tend to trade at a P/S not far from one.
On the whole, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this as a very popular Stocks and Shares ISA buy, perhaps even a must-have! But the IPO is expected to happen weeks away. What can Stocks and Shares ISA holders do now?
A buy?
Anyone desperate to get some exposure to the exciting AI model may wish to consider adding Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) to their ISA. The US delivery titan has an estimated 20% stake in Anthropic.
While Amazon is well known for its website, deliveries and Prime service, this only accounts for a part of its business – around 80% of sales and 40% of earnings. The gap between those figures shows how tight the margins in e-commerce are. The more profitable segment of AWS, which provides cloud computing and server infrastructure, fills in the gap.
While tech has been booming of late, Amazon has been something of a sluggard. The company’s massive AI spending hasn’t helped, nor has the lowered consumer demand for online shopping post-pandemic. The share price is up just 58% in the last five years and pays no dividend. That performance is not just eclipsed by most of its tech peers, but by the FTSE 100 average as well!
On the other hand, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21 looks reasonable for the owner of the biggest stake in Anthropic and what could be an IPO for the ages. Worth thinking about, I’d say.
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John Fieldsend owns shares in Nvidia and SpaceX.
This story originally appeared on Motley Fool
