With initial public offerings by OpenAI and Anthropic coming into view, artificial intelligence investing is splintering into bets on individual "model ecosystems" — portfolios that bundle a lab's backers along with chipmakers, data center operators and other companies across its value chain.
U.S. asset manager Harbor Capital this month launched five AI lab ecosystem exchange-traded funds built around OpenAI (OAIW), Anthropic (ANTW), SpaceX and xAI (XAIW), Meta (MTAW) and Google DeepMind (DEPW), according to financial investment industry sources on the 25th.
What sets the funds apart is that each maps the capital and infrastructure ties surrounding a specific AI model into a portfolio. OAIW holds OpenAI backers SoftBank at 9.9% and Microsoft at 6.8%, along with Oracle at 6.9%, Amazon at 6.7% and AMD at 6.5%. ANTW holds Anthropic investors Alphabet at 8.8% and Amazon at 6.9%, plus AI data center operator TeraWulf at 10.2%, bringing the combined weight of capital and strategic partners to 31.3%. XAIW centers on SpaceX at 20.4%, which listed in June, alongside computing and infrastructure names including Nvidia at 8.0%, Dell at 4.7% and Oracle at 4.7%.
Behind the launches are the AI model developers' march toward public markets and swelling infrastructure investment. Anthropic and OpenAI began the IPO process in June by filing confidential registration statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As competition among AI models draws in capital providers and infrastructure suppliers beyond the developers themselves, the funds represent an attempt to broaden exposure across the entire value chain.
Harbor Capital's products also differ in approach from ETFs that hold private shares directly. Already listed on U.S. exchanges are CNEQ and ALAI, which hold Anthropic at 5.5% and 3.02% respectively, and TTEQ, which holds both Anthropic at 0.9% and OpenAI at 0.47%. Direct-holding funds offer the advantage of owning stakes in these companies before an IPO, but rising inflows dilute the weight of private holdings, and changes in value can be reflected in net asset value only with a lag. Ecosystem funds, by contrast, are built mainly on listed companies and cannot directly capture gains in the value of private firms.
SK hynix, meanwhile, appears in four of the five ETFs, making it a common holding that cuts across the major AI models. It is held by ANTW at 5.0%, OAIW at 4.8%, DEPW at 3.0% and MTAW at 2.2%. "At a moment when listing expectations are building and investment demand is expanding, investors need to pay attention to thematic ETFs that let them capture, ahead of the curve, both the growth of individual AI model companies and the benefits flowing through the entire supply chain ecosystem," said Jang Chi-young, an analyst at Hana Securities.
