OpenAI finalises $10 billion joint venture with PE firms to deploy AI

By Seth Fiegerman and Preeti Singh

 

OpenAI and Anthropic PBC are both forming joint ventures with some of the world’s most recognisable financial institutions in a race to drive more adoption of their artificial intelligence tools. 

OpenAI has raised more than $4 billion from investors, including TPG Inc., Brookfield Asset Management, Advent and Bain Capital, for a firm focused on helping businesses leverage its AI software, Bloomberg reported on Monday. Within minutes of that news, rival Anthropic announced its partnership with Blackstone Inc., Hellman & Friedman and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to form a similar company.

 

Both efforts coincide with the rise of “forward-deployed engineers” — people being aggressively recruited by seemingly every AI model developer to explain to businesses how AI software can improve their operations. Their goal is to accelerate more adoption of the technology that AI companies have spent billions of dollars to create, and are still trying to turn a profit from.

 

 

Boosting adoption rates has become an ever more critical task for OpenAI and Anthropic as both are targeting initial public offerings as soon as this year.   

 

OpenAI’s new venture is called The Deployment Company, according to a person with knowledge of the venture who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t yet public. The fundraising values OpenAI’s new company at $10 billion, not including the money, the person said, adding that the firm will be majority-owned and controlled by OpenAI. 

 

Other partners include Dragoneer Investment Group and SoftBank Group Corp., among others, the person said, as well as a mix of consulting firms. Bloomberg News previously reported OpenAI was in discussions for the joint venture.

 

Spokespeople for OpenAI, TPG and Brookfield declined to comment. Representatives for the other partner companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.

 

With its own venture, Anthropic said it’s aiming to deploy its flagship Claude AI system into the core operations of a broad group of midsize companies. That venture also received backing from Apollo Global Management Inc., General Atlantic, Leonard Green & Partners, GIC and Sequoia Capital. 

 

Anthropic’s new firm will help integrate AI tools into companies owned by the asset managers backing it, as well as firms not owned by those asset managers.

 

Both OpenAI and Anthropic have seen particularly strong demand for their AI-powered coding tools, which have sped up programming for software developers. But they’re increasingly pushing into other sectors such as financial services and healthcare to bolster their sales. 

 

The partners for OpenAI’s new joint venture have access to more than 2,000 portfolio companies and clients, according to the person familiar with that business. The aim is to use those relationships to enable more businesses to adopt AI, the person said. 

 

Last month, OpenAI said Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap would shift into a new role leading special projects, including overseeing the company’s push to sell software to businesses through the joint venture.