ETMarkets Smart Talk | Anthropic, SpaceX, US stocks: Viram Shah on how Indian investors can access global opportunities

The global investment opportunity set is getting wider for Indian investors. From high-profile AI companies such as Anthropic to blockbuster listings such as SpaceX, some of the world's most closely watched investment opportunities are now outside Indian markets.

But accessing these opportunities comes with its own set of questions. Can Indian retail investors buy US-listed stocks after an IPO? What about investing in private companies before they go public?

How do the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, overseas taxation and paperwork such as W-8BEN come into play? And perhaps most importantly, how should investors separate the excitement around a marquee name from the valuation they are actually paying?


In this episode of ETMarkets Smart Talk, Viram Shah, Founder and CEO of Vested Finance, explains how Indian investors can access US stocks and private-market opportunities, while also decoding the lessons from Anthropic and SpaceX on AI valuations, IPO hype, price discovery and the risks of investing in high-growth companies. Edited Excerpts -

Q) Anthropic has reportedly pushed back its IPO plans. Should investors see this as a red flag, or is postponing an IPO simply part of the normal listing process?

A) I would not read too much into a shift of a few weeks in an IPO timeline. For a transaction potentially worth around $2 trillion getting the structure, processes, and most importantly the pricing right matters far more than meeting an indicative date.

Anthropic was valued at about $965 billion as recently as May 2026, so the bigger question for investors is what fundamentals justify potentially doubling that valuation.

Read more: ETMarkets Smart Talk | Fed, inflation, rupee: How investors should navigate India’s 7%+ bond yields, says Vineet Agrawal

Q) Are investors currently valuing AI companies on today's earnings, or on what they believe these companies
could become five or ten years from now?

A) AI valuations today are clearly factoring in a significant amount of future growth. Anthropic's annualised revenue run-rate reportedly went from around $9 billion in 2025 to more than $65 billion by mid-2026. Its May valuation was around $965 billion. At a potential $2 trillion IPO valuation, investors would effectively be paying roughly 30x the current annualised revenue run-rate.

The key is that investors are paying today for earnings that may only materialise years from now. That leaves very little room for execution misses. Revenue uptick alone will not justify these valuations. Investors need to watch margins, cash burn and compute costs.

In AI, the eventual winners may not necessarily be the fastest-growing companies, but those that can convert that growth into sustainable cash flow.

Q) We've seen investors aggressively chase some of the biggest AI names. How do you distinguish genuine long-term AI winners from companies benefiting mainly from the AI narrative?

A) The first thing is to separate the AI story from the actual business. Is the company consistently growing revenue? Are customers staying and spending more? Is it gaining market share? And does it have a product or technology that is difficult to replicate?

The next question is whether that growth can eventually translate into profits and cash flows. AI is capital-intensive, so investors also need to understand how much the company is spending to generate that growth.

And finally, valuation matters. A great AI company does not automatically make a great investment at every price. The long-term winners will be businesses that can sustain growth, build a competitive advantage and eventually justify the valuation investors are paying today.

Q) We have seen the listing of SpaceX. What does the sharp move after listing, and the subsequent correction, tell us about buying into highly anticipated IPOs?

A) SpaceX is a useful lesson in separating a great company from the price you pay for it. The IPO was priced at $135 a share in June. The stock subsequently moved sharply higher and then saw a meaningful correction.

That is public-market price discovery in action. SpaceX itself raised roughly $86 billion through the IPO after the over-allotment was exercised, making this an unusually large transaction.

For investors, the lesson is that scarcity and excitement can dominate the first few trading sessions, but eventually the market comes back to the bottomline i.e. earnings, growth and real valuation.

An IPO price is a starting point for price discovery, not necessarily an assessment of intrinsic value.

Q) Let's start from the basics: Can an Indian resident actually invest in a US IPO such as Anthropic?

A) For an Indian retail investor sitting in India, the process is different from an Indian IPO. They generally cannot apply for a US IPO allotment in the same way they can apply for an Indian IPO.

The practical route is much simpler: once the company lists on a US exchange and the stock starts trading, Indian investors can buy its shares through platforms that provide access to US markets.

We saw this with SpaceX as well. Once the company listed, many investors on our platform bought the stock and gained exposure to the company.

These investments can be made under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, which currently allows resident Indians to remit up to $250,000 per financial year for permitted transactions.

Q) How does pre-IPO investing work for an Indian retail investor? Who can access these opportunities, and what are the minimum investment requirements?

A) For Indian retail investors, investing in global private companies has traditionally been difficult. These opportunities are not available on public stock exchanges, access is limited, minimum investment amounts can be high, and investors generally need to go through specialised private-market platforms or investment vehicles.

At Vested, we provide eligible Indian investors access to select private-market opportunities, primarily in the US. The minimum investment can start at around $5,000, depending on the opportunity.

The investment is typically made through a Special Purpose Vehicle, or SPV, which pools capital from multiple investors and invests in the private company. The investor becomes a Limited Partner in that SPV.

The process, from exploring an opportunity and expressing interest to completing documentation and tracking the investment, can be done through Vested.

However, these are long-term investments. Unlike listed stocks, investors cannot simply sell whenever they want. They typically need to wait for an IPO, acquisition or another liquidity event to exit.

Read more: ETMarkets Smart Talk | From SpaceX to Anthropic: Subho Moulik decodes a step-by-step guide for Indian investors

Q) What paperwork does an Indian investor need before buying US stocks: PAN, KYC, Form W-8BEN, overseas brokerage account, or anything else?

A) The process has become significantly simpler. An Indian investor generally needs to complete KYC, provide PAN and open an overseas brokerage account through Vested’s platform. PAN is mandatory for remittances under LRS.

We automatically fill out and submit users’ W-8BEN form digitally using their KYC and tax residency information during the initial account setup. This establishes their status as a non-US person and is relevant for applying treaty withholding rates on US-source income such as dividends.

Funds are then remitted under LRS through an authorised dealer bank.

Q) Is the taxation different if I invest in a US IPO, buy the stock after listing, or invest through a US-focused mutual fund or ETF?

A) For an Indian investor, there is no separate tax treatment simply because a US stock was bought around its IPO or after it listed. What matters is how long you hold the investment.

For US stocks and ETFs, if held for more than 24 months, the gains are taxed in India at 12.5%. If held for 24 months or less, the gains are added to your income and taxed at your applicable slab rate. Capital gains are not taxed again in the US.

Dividends work differently. The US withholds 25% tax on dividends. In India, the gross dividend is taxed at the investor’s applicable slab rate. However, the tax already paid in the US can generally be claimed as a foreign tax credit under the India-US DTAA.

Tax reporting can also be a concern when investing overseas. At Vested, we generate the relevant tax reports for capital gains, foreign income and foreign assets.

This includes reports for Schedule FA, Schedule FSI, Schedule TR and Form 67. We also have an integration with ClearTax that allows investors to take these documents directly into the tax-filing process.