ETF issuers are getting creative in the race to offer pre-IPO Anthropic exposure

ETF issuers are pursuing increasingly complex structures to give investors exposure to Anthropic before its initial public offering, which is approaching with a projected valuation of about $1.5 trillion, according to Pensions & Investments. Two main approaches are emerging: special purpose vehicles (SPVs) and derivatives such as perpetual futures and total return swaps. Analysts expect these methods could become more common for ETFs seeking exposure to private companies.

Active ETFs have held direct Anthropic stakes through Series G and Series H shares. BlackRock's $11.9 billion iShares AI Innovation and Tech Active ETF (BAI) holds more than 185,000 Anthropic shares, representing 1.3% of the fund. T. Rowe Price's $8 billion Capital Appreciation Equity ETF (TCAF) holds more than 91,000 shares, or 1% of assets, as of Nov. 3. Under SEC rules for '40 Act funds, ETFs may hold up to 15% of net assets in illiquid assets.

Smaller issuers are pursuing more substantial exposure. Corgi Invest's Corgi MANGOS ETF (MN) invests in six companies: Meta Platforms, Anthropic, NVIDIA, Alphabet, OpenAI and SpaceX. Anthropic and OpenAI are private, and Corgi gains proxy exposure through total return swaps and perpetual futures. Rich Lee, head of program trading and execution strategy at Baird, said the perpetual future price is driven by investor sentiment rather than a live market price, making it a "derivative of a derivative." He questioned allowing such proxy access through ETFs when average investors are generally barred from non-public companies unless qualified. MN charges a 0.20% expense ratio.

Tema ETFs previously used an SPV to provide SpaceX exposure in its Space Innovators ETF (NASA), which saw assets rise to $2.6 billion in June before falling to about $906 million after SpaceX's IPO; the fund is down 13.8% since its March launch. Tema is now applying the same approach to Anthropic in the Tema Photonics & Optical ETF (LAZR), which carries a 0.75% expense ratio. Paisley Nardini, head of investment strategy at Tema ETFs, said SPVs give direct ownership of underlying shares, though public-market holders face more dilution and fewer voting rights than insiders. She noted derivatives offer daily liquidity but rely on sentiment-based pricing, while SPV valuations are static, based on the manager's acquisition price, and swaps may carry additional fees.

Nardini argued that ETFs offer a lower-cost, transparent wrapper compared with interval funds, which she said often charge 100 to 200 basis points and restrict redemptions to quarterly windows capped at 5%. Lee expects more issuers to pursue perpetual futures as late-stage companies stay private longer, describing the trend as issuers "throwing a lot of spaghetti" at the wall.