Several UK investment trust companies are expected to make strong returns on the IPO of Anthropic, expected on Nasdaq in November.
Trusts invested in Anthropic include four Baillie Gifford-run funds — US Growth, Monks, Schiehallion Fund and Scottish Mortgage — as well as RIT Capital Partners, HarbourVest Global Private Equity and Pantheon International.
James Budden, Director of Marketing and Distribution at Baillie Gifford, said: “Schiehallion first invested in Anthropic in August 2025, deploying capital through to May 2026, with a total investment of $46 million.
“At the last valuation as of 31 August 2026, the holding was valued at $139 million, representing an increase of around three times the original investment and accounting for 6.1 per cent of total assets.
“Baillie Gifford US Growth first invested in August 2025, deploying capital through to February 2026 amounting to a total of $25 million. On 31 August 2026, the holding was valued at $63 million, an increase of around 2.5 times the original investment and now accounting for 6.8% of total assets.
“Finally Scottish Mortgage first invested in Anthropic in August 2025, deploying capital through to May 2026, with a total investment of $229 million. At 31 July 2026 the holding was valued at $460 million, representing an increase of around two times the original investment and accounting for 2.8 per cent of total assets.”
Maggie Fanari, CEO of J. Rothschild Capital Management, investment manager for RIT Capital Partners, said: “We are pleased to be an early investor in Anthropic, investing in 2025 and then increasing our position in 2026.
“Anthropic is a category-leading business that illustrates the scale of innovation increasingly taking place outside public markets.
“As one of the world’s leading frontier AI labs, Anthropic is helping reshape how artificial intelligence is developed and adopted, with a particular emphasis on safety, governance and enterprise trust.
“The pace of its growth demonstrates both the scale of the opportunity in AI and the importance of looking beyond listed markets to identify the next generation of leading companies.
“Some of the world’s most innovative and valuable companies are choosing to remain private for longer, changing how investors can access the next generation of growth opportunities.
“At RIT, our longstanding relationships with leading private markets managers, including Founders Fund, ICONIQ and Thrive, have enabled us to invest in businesses such as Anthropic, Databricks, Cognition and Stripe while they remain private.”
Annabel Brodie-Smith, Director of the Association of Investment Companies (AIC), said: “Despite recent wobbles in the AI trade, Anthropic is a revolutionary business, with Claude already being a household name.
“The IPO prospectus has been published, but some investment trusts have already benefited from the company’s remarkable growth, making returns of around two to three times their initial investment.
“Investment trusts offer private investors the only tried-and-tested way to invest in dynamic companies like Anthropic before they list on a stock market. Investors can access these companies through an investment trust while they are rapidly growing and don’t have to wait for them to IPO.
“That’s because investment trusts can take a long-term view and don’t have to sell their investments when investors sell shares in the trust.”