Anthropic and OpenAI Partner with Wall Street to Form Joint Ventures, Boosting Enterprise-Level AI Services
On Monday, Anthropic announced the establishment of a company focused on deploying enterprise-level AI services, operating as a joint venture. The new company has Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and Goldman Sachs as founding partners, and has also received support from various venture capital, hedge funds, and private equity firms, including Apollo Global Management and General Atlantic.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, the joint venture is valued at approximately $1.5 billion, with Anthropic, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman each committing $300 million. This signifies that Anthropic is attempting to open new channels for the implementation of enterprise-level AI by deeply binding with asset management institutions, in the combination of large model manufacturers and traditional financial capital.
Just hours before Anthropic’s official announcement, its most direct competitor in the foundational model field, OpenAI, was revealed to be preparing a similar, larger-scale joint venture plan. According to Bloomberg, OpenAI plans to partner with several private equity firms to establish a new company called “The Development Company,” also focusing on the deployment and implementation of enterprise-level AI solutions. The joint venture plans to raise $4 billion from 19 investors, corresponding to a valuation of approximately $10 billion. Disclosed investors include TPG, Brookfield Asset Management, Advent, and Bain Capital, with no significant overlap in the investor list with Anthropic’s joint venture project.
The logic behind the intensive collaboration between the two AI companies and asset management giants is highly similar: by introducing funds from alternative asset management institutions, establishing dedicated channels, and expanding enterprise-level AI business in a more aggressive manner. These joint venture entities are expected to gain “entry advantages” on the sales end by prioritizing access to the large portfolio companies held by the investing institutions, while investors will be able to obtain more direct and substantial value returns in subsequent AI project contracts.
The additional capital also creates conditions for the deep sinking of engineering resources, allowing the technical teams of both companies to invest more manpower in individual enterprise projects and promote the “Frontline Deployment Engineer” (FDE) model, which Palantir has strongly advocated. Anthropic cited an example in its announcement, stating that a collaboration could begin with an engineering team working with clinicians and IT personnel to co-design tools around existing workflows, striving to seamlessly integrate the new system into the daily routines of frontline employees. Similar collaborative projects will cover medium-sized enterprises in various industries, with the project form shaped by those closest to the specific business.
Concurrently with the advancement of these two joint venture plans, OpenAI and Anthropic are also in a period of intense financing and are viewed by the market as potential IPO candidates. OpenAI announced the completion of a new round of financing of $122 billion at the end of March this year, corresponding to a valuation of approximately $852 billion. According to a previous report by TechCrunch, Anthropic is also close to completing a new round of financing, planning to raise $50 billion, corresponding to a valuation of approximately $900 billion. Against the backdrop of large model manufacturers accelerating their rush to the capital markets, establishing dedicated joint venture platforms for the enterprise market with Wall Street asset management institutions is becoming a new path for them to strengthen their commercialization capabilities and consolidate their valuation base.
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OpenAI and Anthropic, if you're brothers, come and fight me.