Imagine if you could have invested in Amazon (AMZN) before its IPO. Or Google (GOOG). Or Facebook (META).

That’s the dream every investor has when a transformative new technology comes along: Find the company that could dominate an enormous new market, get in early, and hold on as it grows. Of course, ordinary investors usually don’t get that opportunity until a company finally reaches the public markets.

Artificial intelligence has created a strange version of that situation today. Two of the most important AI companies in the world still aren’t publicly traded.

OpenAI and Anthropic.

OpenAI brought generative AI into the mainstream with ChatGPT, while Anthropic has emerged as one of its biggest competitors with Claude. Together, they’re helping lead what I believe will become one of the largest technological shifts of our lifetimes. Yet unless you’re a major institutional or private investor, you can’t simply open your brokerage account and buy shares of either company.

At least not yet.

The IPO Race Is Heating Up

That could soon change. Anthropic is moving toward what could become one of the biggest IPOs ever. According to recent reporting on its IPO prospectus, the company generated $4.6 billion in revenue last year, up roughly 12-fold from the previous year. It’s now seeking a valuation that could exceed $2 trillion.

OpenAI may not be far behind. Its CFO told employees in August that the company expects to become publicly traded in 2027, potentially sooner if the business continues growing rapidly.

If either company comes public at anything close to those kinds of valuations, the IPO will almost certainly become one of the biggest financial stories of the year. Investors will scramble for shares, CNBC will cover it nonstop, and Wall Street will spend months debating whether the valuation makes sense.

But here’s the part I find more interesting as an investor: There may already be another way in.

Publicly traded companies already own significant pieces of these private AI giants. That creates an unusual opportunity for everyday investors to potentially gain indirect exposure to companies like OpenAI and Anthropic before their IPOs ever happen.

You May Not Have to Wait

Most investors assume they have two choices with a hot private company. Either you’re a wealthy venture capitalist or institution that can invest before the IPO, or you sit on the sidelines and wait until the stock finally begins trading.

But there can be a third option.

A handful of publicly traded companies have already invested billions of dollars in private AI leaders. In some cases, those investments have resulted in meaningful ownership stakes in companies that could eventually rank among the largest technology businesses in the world.

Think about how unusual that is. You can’t type OpenAI or Anthropic into your brokerage account and hit the buy button. But you can buy shares of certain publicly traded companies that already own pieces of them.

And as the valuations of these private AI giants have exploded, those stakes have the potential to become increasingly important.

Now imagine what could happen when one of these companies eventually goes public. Instead of analysts estimating what a private investment might be worth, Wall Street suddenly gets a market price for it. Investors may begin looking at the public companies that own those stakes very differently.

That doesn’t guarantee their stocks will rise. Private-company valuations can change, IPO timelines can slip, and these public companies have other businesses that affect their overall value. But it creates the kind of situation I’m always looking for when investing in a major megatrend.

Follow the Stakes

Everyone naturally wants to own the company producing the breakthrough technology. But sometimes an intriguing opportunity is sitting one step removed… inside another publicly traded company that most investors aren’t connecting to the trend.

We’ve seen versions of this throughout market history. When a new technology explodes, Wall Street initially focuses on the obvious winners. Eventually, investors start digging deeper and discovering the companies supplying them, partnering with them, investing in them, or quietly owning valuable assets tied to the boom.

I believe AI is entering that stage right now.

The next wave of opportunities won’t necessarily be limited to the companies with “AI” in their names or the handful of mega-cap technology stocks that have dominated the headlines so far.

Sometimes you have to look beneath the surface.