Anthropic IPO: how to buy ANT stock in Canada, and how early

Anthropic, the company behind the Claude chatbot, filed to go public on October 26 and plans to list on the Nasdaq, the New York stock exchange where Apple, Nvidia and most big tech companies trade, under the ticker ANT. You can buy it from Canada, and you may not have to wait for the first day of trading. Anthropic has named Wealthsimple as one of its Canadian retail selling agents, which means ordinary Canadians can ask for shares at the IPO price, the same price the big funds pay, before the stock opens.

Anthropic hasn't announced a date. Under the rules of the SEC, the US securities regulator, it can't start pitching its shares to investors until 15 days after its public filing, so November 10 at the earliest. The Wall Street Journal reports that the pitch could start as soon as next week, with the shares trading the week before US Thanksgiving, which would mean around November 16 to 20.

The Anthropic IPO at a glance

How big is this?

Very. When a private company "goes public", it sells new shares to the public for the first time in an initial public offering, or IPO, and from then on anyone can buy and sell those shares on a stock exchange. Reports suggest Anthropic could raise as much as US$100 billion, which would beat the record SpaceX set in June with about US$86 billion. Talk of a US$2 trillion value for the whole company has cooled since the October selloff: the Wall Street Journal reports that big investors are pushing for US$1.5 trillion to US$1.6 trillion.

It's also a first of its kind. You can already own a slice of the big AI models through giant companies that make them on the side: Alphabet (Google's parent) builds Gemini, Meta builds Llama, and SpaceX brought Elon Musk's Grok to the market when it listed in June, inside a rocket and satellite company. Anthropic would be the first company whose whole business is a leading AI model to list on a stock exchange. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has also filed confidentially but hasn't gone public.

Anthropic's own filing explains both the excitement and the nerves. It took in US$16.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, up from US$1.2 billion a year earlier, and more than three times its revenue for all of 2025. It also reported a US$80.7 billion net loss for those six months, though about US$72 billion of that is a paper loss, not cash out the door: it comes from loans that can turn into shares, which got more expensive on its books as the company's value climbed. It has also promised roughly US$417 billion to cloud and chip suppliers for computing power over the coming years, far more than it has earned so far.

Why the timing is awkward

Anthropic is coming to market while investors are asking a hard question about AI: will all this spending ever pay for itself? Tech giants are pouring hundreds of billions into data centres, and in October the market started demanding proof.

On October 22, the Nasdaq fell 2.6%, its worst day since June, after Meta raised its spending forecast and Nvidia's CEO said money for AI cloud companies was getting scarce. The S&P 500 dropped 1.2% the same day. CoreWeave and Nebius, two companies that rent out AI computing power, each lost more than 30% of their value in October, and a few other tech IPOs were pulled.

A nervous market can push the IPO price lower, which helps you if you're buying. It can also mean a bumpy first few months if investors stay jumpy.

Do IPOs usually go up?

On the first day, often. Over the long run, less so.

University of Florida professor Jay Ritter has tracked US IPOs for decades. Across 9,253 of them from 1980 to 2024, the average one closed its first day about 19% above its IPO price, because banks tend to price new shares a little low to make sure they all sell. Google followed the pattern almost exactly in 2004: priced at US$85, it closed its first day at about US$100.

The trouble starts for people who buy after the first-day jump. Bought at the first day's closing price, those same IPOs trailed the overall market by about 20% over the next three years. Big, established companies did much better: those with more than US$500 million in annual sales trailed by only about 4%, and Anthropic's sales are far above that.

SpaceX shows both halves of that story in a few months. It priced at US$135 in June, closed its first day around US$161 (up 19%), and hit about US$211 the following week. A month later it had slipped below its IPO price, and by late October it was trading a little under its first-day opening price of US$150. People who got shares at US$135 in the IPO were still ahead. Anyone who bought near the peak was down close to 30%.

Anthropic's employees and early investors can sell on the first day of trading, and more of their shares unlock 27, 48, 62 and 76 days after the IPO, much sooner than the usual six months. When lots of people are allowed to sell at once, there can be more shares for sale than buyers, and that tends to push the price down.

How early can you buy Anthropic shares in Canada?

You have two chances: before trading starts, at the IPO price, or from the moment it opens on the Nasdaq.

Before trading: request shares at the IPO price with Wealthsimple

This is the earliest way in, and normally only big institutions and wealthy clients get it. Anthropic's list of approved Canadian sellers includes Wealthsimple, the only app-based broker on it, and Wealthsimple's IPO Access lets any Canadian client request shares. Anthropic has filed a Canadian prospectus (the official offering document) with the securities regulator in every province and territory, which is what opens it to all Canadians. For IPOs sold only in the US, Wealthsimple limits requests to "accredited" investors, people with more than $1 million in financial assets or more than $200,000 in income in each of the past two years.

Here's how it works:

1. Open a Wealthsimple account and fund it. IPO Access works in a TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP or regular account, in Canadian or US dollars. A new deposit takes a few business days to settle, meaning to fully clear, so fund it well before the request deadline.
2. Find Anthropic in the IPO Access list on Wealthsimple once the request window opens, and read the offering documents.
3. Tap "Request shares", choose the number of shares and the account. There's no minimum and no fee. You can have one request per IPO across all your accounts.
4. Wealthsimple sets aside cash for the top of the price range plus 20%. Say the range topped out at US$100: a 10-share request would hold back US$1,200. The money stays in your account until the deal is done.
5. The price is set, usually in the evening, and you find out the next morning how many shares you got. Unused cash goes back to you.

If more people ask than there are shares, Wealthsimple picks requests at random. Asking for more shares doesn't improve your odds, though Generation clients (its top tier) get a higher weighting. You might get all, some or none of what you asked for.

One rule to know before you request: if you sell or move your IPO shares within 60 days, Wealthsimple treats it as flipping, and its current policy is to keep flippers out of future IPOs. Plan to hold for at least two months.

The other Canadian names on Anthropic's list are the investment-dealer arms of BMO, CIBC, RBC, Scotiabank and TD, plus Morgan Stanley. If you invest through one of the big banks' online brokerages, ask whether it's taking requests from clients.

From the first day: buy ANT on the Nasdaq

If you don't get IPO shares, or don't want to wait for a lottery, you can buy ANT the moment it starts trading through any Canadian brokerage that offers US stocks: Wealthsimple, Questrade, Qtrade, Interactive Brokers or your bank's online brokerage. Don't expect it at 9:30 a.m. Eastern: the first trade of a big IPO usually comes hours after the opening bell, once the exchange has matched enough buy and sell orders to set an opening price.

Two tips for that day. Use a limit order, which lets you set the highest price you'll pay, so your order doesn't go through at a wild opening price. And check that you're buying ANT on the Nasdaq: a small Canadian mining company, Anteros Metals, already uses ANT on the Canadian Securities Exchange.

What it costs to buy a US stock from Canada

Anthropic trades in US dollars, so your Canadian dollars need converting, and that's where most of the cost hides. The Bank of Canada's rate on November 2 was about $1.40 Canadian per US dollar.

At Wealthsimple, buying a US stock from a Canadian-dollar account costs a 1.5% conversion fee each way, with no trading commission. On a $5,000 purchase, that's about $75 going in and another $75 when you sell. A US-dollar account cuts that: it's included on Wealthsimple's Premium and Generation plans and costs $10 a month on Core, after a 30-day free trial. If you're moving a larger amount, the cheapest ways to convert US and Canadian dollars can save you more.

Open your account with a $25 bonus

If you want a shot at Anthropic shares at the IPO price, Wealthsimple is the account to open now, before the request window. It takes a few minutes on your phone, there's no minimum to open, and you can pick a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA right away.

Sign up with Canooq's referral link and deposit $100 within 30 days, and you get a $25 bonus. The link connects your new account to Canooq's, your first $100 deposit from your bank triggers the reward, and the $25 is paid into your Wealthsimple account once your money arrives. That $100 then sits in your account ready for an IPO request.

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Open and fund a new Wealthsimple account to get a $25 bonus. It can be a clean place to manage cash and invest in a TFSA, RRSP, or FHSA when the account fits your goal.

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Canooq may earn a referral benefit if you open an eligible account. Wealthsimple referral terms, account features, foreign-exchange fees, and product fees can change. Check Wealthsimple before opening an account.

Common questions about buying Anthropic stock in Canada

Can I buy US stocks like Anthropic in a TFSA?

Yes. A TFSA can hold shares listed on any stock exchange the federal government has "designated", and the Nasdaq has been on that list since 2007. Any gains on ANT in your TFSA would be tax-free. Just stay within your contribution room, because over-contributing costs 1% a month on the excess. If you're not sure how much room you have, how the TFSA works walks through it.

TFSA or RRSP: which is better for Anthropic shares?

For a growth stock like this, a TFSA is usually the simpler home: if it soars, you never pay tax on the gain, and you can take the money out any time. The RRSP's main edge with US stocks is dividends, the cash some companies pay shareholders out of profits: the US keeps 15% of them in a TFSA but nothing in an RRSP. Anthropic is losing money and isn't likely to pay dividends any time soon, so that edge doesn't count for much here. TFSA, RRSP or FHSA first helps if you're choosing between them for the first time.

Can I buy Anthropic stock before the IPO?

Not on a regular brokerage. Until it lists, Anthropic's shares are private and change hands only between employees, early backers and a few specialist funds. The earliest a regular Canadian investor can get in is an IPO request through a selling agent like Wealthsimple.

Will Anthropic be listed on the TSX?

No. Anthropic says it doesn't plan to list on any exchange outside the US, so ANT will trade only on the Nasdaq, in US dollars.

What share do I actually get?

Class A shares, which come with a vote. But your vote will count for little: Anthropic's founders hold a special share with 50.1% of the voting power, and a separate Long-Term Benefit Trust elects most of the board. Anthropic is also a public benefit corporation, which means its directors have to weigh its mission on AI safety, not only profit. Amazon, one of its biggest backers, holds shares with no vote at all.

How many shares should I buy?

Only an amount you could watch drop by a third or more without panicking. New stocks swing a lot: SpaceX fell close to 30% from its peak within months. Most beginners are better off keeping individual stocks to a small slice of their savings, with the rest in a low-cost index fund, which buys a little of hundreds of companies at once. If you're new to it, investing in Canada for beginners covers the basics, and how Canadians bought SpaceX at its IPO shows how the last big one played out.