Anthropic listing comes as DIY investing hits record £672bn high

The Anthropic listing comes at a time of heightened retail interest in investing. 

New data from Boring Money confirms that assets held by non-advised investors hit fresh highs at the end of September, despite ongoing volatility in the markets.

As at the end of Q3 2026, DIY investors held £672.3bn, up more than 20% over the last 12 months, with 16.3 million accounts held*. 10% of all DIY investors are beginners, with less than 12 months’ experience in investing**.

Holly Mackay, CEO of Boring Money, comments: “Retail investing has continued to soar this year. Assets held by non-advised investors hit fresh highs in September. I have no doubt that Anthropic will capture the public imagination despite the ongoing volatility and it’s probable the offer will be oversubscribed, with some first-time investors brought in. With over 16 million DIY investment accounts in the UK today, I’m confident we’ll see fresh highs in the number of UK investors by the end of the year.”

“Despite the recent volatility in the AI sector I still expect there to be huge retail interest in this listing. FOMO is a powerful driver and I anticipate strong interest, almost regardless of what the documents say about price and valuation.

The popular SpaceX listing earlier this year was oversubscribed despite investor reservations about the company and its controversial CEO Elon Musk. At the time, a survey of Boring Money readers showed that 26% had participated in SpaceX but almost double (48%) said they would be interested in participating in Anthropic.

Holly added on Anthropic: “Consumers wanting to participate should check if they already have an account with one of the participating platforms, and make sure they have completed a W8-BEN form in advance. It’s also worth bearing in mind that it’s very unlikely they will get all the shares they apply for. Anthropic will limit the amount of shares on sale so – for those seeking higher allocations – these will be divvied up proportionately.”

Anthropic’s lead over OpenAI appears to be driven by both its perceived leadership in AI and familiarity with its products. The top reasons for backing Anthropic were its position as an AI leader (25%) and investors’ personal experience of using its tools (23%).

SpaceX faced significant scepticism from respondents. Three-quarters (74%) said they had chosen not to invest in the company. Asked why, roughly a quarter described SpaceX as overpriced, with many arguing that its valuation had been inflated by other investors’ fear of missing out (FOMO).

Elon Musk also emerged as a significant deterrent, with around one in six (17%) retail investors who shunned the SpaceX IPO citing him directly as a reason for staying away.

*Boring Money’s Market Monitor report Q3 2026 which includes data from over 25 leading platforms.

*Boring Money’s Online Investing Report 2026 draws on data from

• 6,000 nationally representative UK adults, January 2026

• 3,000 UK DIY platform users, December 2025

• 1,167 proprietary panel members surveyed, February 2026

• 20+ platforms’ market data on AUA and customer accounts

• 40+ UK DIY platform UX tests