Axi, a global online FX and CFD broker, has launched pre-IPO perpetual futures contracts linked to OpenAI and Anthropic, giving traders a way to take positions on the price movements of two of the world's most closely watched artificial intelligence companies ahead of their anticipated stock market listings.

The launch comes as the race to bring leading AI companies to the public markets gathers momentum. Anthropic, the company behind the AI assistant Claude, filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on Oct. 26, 2026, with plans to list on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ANT. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has also been pursuing a potential public listing, and its longer-term IPO plans have attracted significant market attention.

As anticipation builds around the future valuations of both companies, Axi's new offering provides an alternative way for traders to gain exposure to their evolving market valuations without waiting for a traditional stock market listing to take place. Pre-listing exposure to companies at this stage has historically flowed through private funding rounds and secondary share sales, channels generally restricted to institutional and qualified investors, which is part of what makes publicly tradable contracts tied to still-private companies notable.

Through the new contracts, traders can take either long or short positions, allowing them to speculate on potential upward or downward price movements. Perpetual futures are derivative instruments that, unlike traditional futures, have no fixed expiry date, allowing positions to remain open for as long as traders maintain the required margin — a contract structure that first found widespread adoption in cryptocurrency derivatives markets. Axi's contracts can be traded 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including weekends, offering flexibility beyond regular exchange trading hours.

The contracts also provide access to leverage of up to 25:1, enabling traders to take positions with a smaller initial margin relative to their overall market exposure. As with any leveraged instrument, price movements have a magnified effect on both gains and losses relative to the margin committed. Because they are structured as perpetual futures, the contracts do not require traders to own shares in either company or hold an underlying equity position.

With Anthropic's Nasdaq filing underway and OpenAI's listing plans still in development, the progress of each IPO process — from regulatory review to eventual pricing and listing, if completed — sets the timeline against which these pre-IPO contracts will trade. The introduction of OpenAI and Anthropic contracts further expands the range of opportunities available through Axi, reflecting the growing intersection between financial markets, emerging technologies, and the global AI industry.