Anthropic’s confidential IPO filing arrives just days before the company unveils a new generation of Claude models that many developers describe as another leap forward in artificial intelligence capabilities.
These two developments highlight how rapidly the AI industry is evolving.
New models are coming out at a pace that would have seemed astonishing even a year ago. At the same time, investors are bracing for a potential megawave of AI listings. Anthropic began its IPO process last week, while OpenAI (Privately held: OPAI) has now filed confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, joining SpaceX (Privately held (US): SPACEX) as one of the industry’s hottest prospects.
As AI systems become more capable, the conversation around artificial intelligence is increasingly shifting from what the technology can do to what it replaces.
Investors may have an easy way to respond to AI disruption, according to a recent memo from Spaceship’s Vice President of Investments, Jason Sedawy. It’s about owning the company that produces it.
“The transition to AI is definitely going to be a big challenge for workers,” Sedaoui said.
“But investing in companies that are leading that change can be a way to participate in turning the transition around, rather than just absorbing the potential costs.”
AI begins to reshape the workforce
This discussion comes as evidence of AI’s impact on the workforce begins to emerge.
Mr Sedawy pointed to recent Deloitte forecasts showing that structural changes related to artificial intelligence are beginning to become visible in the Australian labor market and are likely to become even more pronounced in the coming years. He noted that discussion was spurred by WiseTech Global’s confirmation of plans to cut around 2,000 roles over two years as it accelerates AI adoption across parts of the business.
“Technology companies are announcing layoffs and hiring is slowing down,” Sedaoui said. “This is happening at the same time that productivity expectations for employees are increasing as companies push their employees to adopt AI to increase efficiency.”
Sedawy argues that investors should pay close attention not only to which jobs are affected, but also to where value is being created.
Look beyond the chip
For much of the AI boom, investors seeking exposure focused on infrastructure providers.
Chipmakers, networking companies, and data center operators have emerged as the biggest beneficiaries as the industry races to build the computing power needed to train and run increasingly powerful models.
Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA, XETRA:NVD) was the most obvious winner, but Sedawy believes some of the more interesting opportunities could be further up the list.
“AI agents are only as useful as the data they have access to, and that data is inside existing software,” he said.
He points to companies like Snowflake Inc (NYSE:SNOW) that are embedding AI capabilities directly into corporate data systems, allowing companies to deploy AI tools within their existing information and governance frameworks.
Cybersecurity is also receiving increasing attention.
“As enterprises now have access to AI agents into their core systems, each deployment opens up a new attack surface, so security spending has grown in tandem with AI adoption,” Sedawie wrote.
He highlighted Anthropic’s recently announced Project Glasswing initiative, which brings together security organizations to identify software vulnerabilities using advanced AI tools.
According to Anthropic, participants discovered more than 10,000 high-severity or severity vulnerabilities within a few weeks.
Sedawie noted that CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:CRWD) is one of the launch partners and the only cybersecurity company working with both Anthropic and OpenAI.
He said, “As the company’s CEO has stated, ‘AI is creating the biggest driver of security demand since enterprises moved to the cloud,’ and CrowdStrike is positioned as a key beneficiary.”
The next stage of AI investment
The investment landscape could change significantly as Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX enter the public markets.
Until now, most investors have been exposed to artificial intelligence indirectly through infrastructure suppliers, cloud providers, and software companies building on the underlying model.
That could change if some of the industry’s most influential AI developers become available for direct investment.
The emergence of these companies will give investors a more direct way to participate in the economics of artificial intelligence, rather than relying on companies supplying the tools, chips and infrastructure behind it, Sedary argues.
He noted that for many investors, superannuation remains one of the most tax-efficient ways to gain long-term exposure to AI-related investments, and that the government’s proposed changes to capital gains tax would leave existing super tax settings unchanged.
“The next question for most Australians is how do we get that exposure as efficiently as possible,” he says.
