2 Software Stocks to Buy Before the Anthropic IPO

Anthropic has filed a confidential S-1, moving closer to what could be one of the largest IPOs in history. The article argues Salesforce and Zoom already provide indirect exposure through strategic investments and product integrations, with Salesforce's Anthropic stake reportedly worth about $5 billion and Zoom's about $1.3 billion. The piece is bullish on both stocks as AI beneficiaries, though it is primarily commentary rather than a direct company catalyst.

Analysis

The market is still treating Anthropic as a binary winner, but the more interesting trade is that its IPO path can re-rate the distribution layer rather than just the model layer. CRM and ZM already have embedded economic exposure without the funding-round overhang of a pure private-market proxy, and that matters because public-market multiples tend to expand first on “picks-and-shovels with AI optionality” before investors pay up for standalone model revenue.

Second-order, the real beneficiary is not just AI adoption but workflow consolidation. If agentic tools reduce seat counts, the winners will be incumbents that can re-bundle into higher-value workflows, compliance, and orchestration; that supports CRM more than ZM, but ZM has a more convex setup because the market still prices it like a mature collaboration utility rather than an AI workflow hub. The risk is that the current enthusiasm already capitalizes the Anthropic mark-to-market and leaves less upside if the IPO is delayed, priced aggressively, or accompanied by dilution/lockup overhang.

The contrarian point: the selloff in SaaS may have overshot the medium-term economics. AI agents compress low-end software spending, but they also increase the value of systems-of-record and communication hubs that sit closest to the user and data exhaust. In that setup, the likely underappreciated winner is the incumbent with the strongest distribution and enterprise trust, not necessarily the purest AI vendor; that argues for selective longs in CRM/ZM versus crowded short baskets in software.

Catalyst timing matters: over the next 1-3 months, the setup is sentiment-driven around IPO filings and product announcements; over 6-18 months, the key variable is whether AI features lift net retention and ARPU enough to offset seat pressure. If those metrics inflect positively, the market will stop viewing AI as margin dilution and start viewing it as a bundled monetization upgrade.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long CRM vs. short a software basket (e.g., SNOW/WDAY/TEAM) over the next 3-6 months; CRM has the strongest direct strategic link to Anthropic and the best chance to monetize AI through existing enterprise distribution, while the short leg expresses the risk that agentic AI pressure on legacy SaaS is over-discounted.
• Initiate a tactical long ZM into Anthropic IPO filing/roadshow windows with a 1-2 quarter horizon; the setup is asymmetrical because the market still values ZM as a slower-growth comms asset, so any evidence of AI Companion monetization can drive multiple expansion faster than fundamental revisions.
• Use call spreads rather than outright longs in CRM and ZM into the IPO catalyst; risk/reward is better because a delayed or richly priced Anthropic debut could cap the enthusiasm while still allowing upside from sentiment re-rating.
• Avoid chasing pure-play AI names here; prefer the public proxies until Anthropic is tradable. The near-term alpha is likely in the second-order beneficiaries with visible cash flows, not in trying to front-run a private-market IPO pop.
• If software leadership broadens back out, trim the short basket first and keep the CRM long; CRM is the more durable hedge because the AI integration is more embedded in workflow and should survive a sentiment reset better than point solutions.