On Monday, Anthropic announced a joint venture focusing on deploying enterprise AI services, with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and Goldman Sachs as founding partners. The venture is backed by a consortium of VCs, hedge funds, and private equity firms, including Apollo Global Management, General Atlantic, GIC, Leonard Green, and Sequoia Capital. The Wall Street Journal first reported the news, noting a valuation of $1.5 billion, which includes a $300 million commitment each from Anthropic, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman.
This announcement came just hours after Bloomberg reported that OpenAI is raising funds for a similar venture called The Development Company. OpenAI's venture operates at a larger scale, aiming to raise $4 billion from 19 investors against a $10 billion valuation. Named investors include TPG, Brookfield Asset Management, Advent, and Bain Capital. Notably, there is no overlap in investment between the OpenAI venture and Anthropic's competitor.
The overall logic of both ventures is identical: raising money from alternative asset managers to create new channels for enterprise AI deals. These ventures will presumably get preferred sales access to their investors' portfolio companies, while the investors capture more value from any resulting contracts. This model mirrors the way private equity firms have historically structured deals in other technology sectors, but the focus on AI is new and signals a massive inflow of capital into the enterprise AI space.
The new capital will also allow more engineering resources to be devoted to each client engagement, embracing the forward-deployed engineer (FDE) model popularized by Palantir. As Anthropic put it in its announcement: "An engagement might begin with the company's engineering team sitting down with clinicians and IT staff to build tools that fit into the workflows that staff already use… Engagements like this will run across mid-sized companies across industries, each shaped by the people closest to the work." This hands-on approach is intended to accelerate adoption by tailoring AI solutions directly to customer workflows, rather than selling a generic platform.
The FDE model, originally developed by Palantir in the mid-2000s, involves embedding software engineers directly into client organizations to customize and deploy technology. Palantir's success with this model in government and financial services has inspired both Anthropic and OpenAI to adopt a similar strategy for enterprise AI. By deploying engineers on-site, these AI labs can quickly iterate on solutions, overcome integration challenges, and build trust with clients. This is especially critical in heavily regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, and legal, where off-the-shelf AI solutions often fail to meet compliance requirements.
The new ventures come as both AI labs fundraise at a blistering pace while circling possible IPOs. OpenAI announced $122 billion in new funding at the end of March, against a valuation of $852 billion. TechCrunch reported last week that Anthropic is in the final stages of its own funding round, seeking $50 billion in new funding against a $900 billion valuation. This rapid accumulation of capital reflects the intense competition between the two leading AI labs, both of which are racing to dominate the enterprise market.
The enterprise AI market is projected to grow from $18 billion in 2023 to over $200 billion by 2030, according to industry analysts. Financial institutions, healthcare providers, and manufacturing companies are increasingly looking to deploy AI to automate workflows, generate insights, and reduce costs. However, many enterprise customers remain cautious about data privacy, model reliability, and vendor lock-in. The joint ventures aim to address these concerns by offering dedicated engineering support and customized deployments.
Blackstone's involvement in the Anthropic venture is particularly notable. The firm has been aggressive in technology investments, with a portfolio that includes major stakes in data infrastructure and cloud computing. Hellman & Friedman, a private equity giant with a focus on enterprise software, brings deep expertise in scaling B2B technology companies. Goldman Sachs, as a financial advisor and investor, adds credibility and access to a network of corporate clients.
On the OpenAI side, the involvement of TPG and Brookfield signals a similar strategy. TPG has a history of backing disruptive technology companies, while Brookfield is one of the largest alternative asset managers globally, with a strong presence in infrastructure. The $4 billion target for OpenAI's Development Company suggests a broader scope, potentially including large-scale deployment of AI across entire industries.
The rivalry between Anthropic and OpenAI has been intensifying for months, with both companies poaching talent, filing patents, and announcing new models. Anthropic's Claude model is widely regarded as a strong competitor to OpenAI's GPT-4, particularly in tasks requiring reasoning and safety. OpenAI, meanwhile, has been focusing on multimodal capabilities and integration with Microsoft's Azure cloud platform. The launch of competing enterprise ventures adds a new dimension to this rivalry, as each lab vies for long-term contracts with the world's largest corporations.
One key differentiator may be the safety philosophy. Anthropic was founded by former OpenAI employees who were concerned about the risks of artificial general intelligence. As a result, Anthropic has positioned itself as a more cautious and safety-focused alternative. In its announcement, the company emphasized that its joint venture would prioritize "responsible deployment" and "alignment with human values." OpenAI, while also publicly committed to safety, has been more aggressive in pushing products to market, including the controversial GPT Store and voice cloning tools.
The venture structure also has implications for intellectual property (IP) rights. Typically, when an AI lab works with an enterprise client, the resulting customizations or specialized models may be shared or licensed back to the lab. In the case of these joint ventures, it is likely that a portion of the IP developed during engagements will be jointly owned, giving the investors ongoing royalties or licensing fees. This creates a new asset class for alternative asset managers, who are increasingly looking for ways to profit from the AI boom beyond traditional equity stakes.
Another factor to consider is the regulatory environment. The Biden administration has been exploring executive orders and agency guidelines around AI safety and fairness, while the European Union's AI Act is set to impose strict requirements on high-risk AI systems. The joint ventures will need to navigate these regulations carefully. Anthropic's safety-first approach may give it an advantage in Europe, while OpenAI's deep ties to Microsoft could help it comply with US government standards.
The FDE model also raises questions about scalability. Palantir's model was criticized for being capital-intensive and difficult to scale, as each engagement requires significant human capital. Anthropic and OpenAI are likely aware of this challenge and may use the new ventures to experiment with semi-automated deployment tools, reducing the need for on-site engineers over time. However, for the foreseeable future, both companies plan to hire aggressively, with job postings for forward-deployed engineers already appearing on LinkedIn.
The funding rounds themselves reflect a broader trend in AI investment. Despite fears of a bubble, venture capital and private equity firms are pouring money into AI labs with valuations that rival established tech giants. Anthropic's $900 billion valuation would make it one of the most valuable private companies in the world, behind only SpaceX and ByteDance. OpenAI's $852 billion valuation is similarly astronomical. These valuations are justified by the companies' revenue growth—OpenAI is reportedly on track to generate $10 billion in revenue in 2026, while Anthropic is expected to exceed $3 billion.
However, skeptics warn that the enterprise AI market may not mature as quickly as optimists hope. Many corporations are still in the experimental phase, with AI deployment limited to specific tasks like customer service chatbots or code generation. The joint ventures are essentially a bet that corporations will soon be ready to make much larger investments, integrating AI into their core operations. If that bet pays off, the investors in these ventures stand to make extraordinary returns. If not, the billion-dollar valuations could prove fragile.
The announcement also has implications for the broader AI ecosystem. Startups that focus on enterprise AI deployment may find themselves squeezed between the deep pockets of OpenAI and Anthropic. Consulting firms like Accenture and Deloitte, which have built AI practices, could face competition from these joint ventures that combine technology expertise with engineering manpower. On the other hand, the ventures could create new opportunities for specialized AI tools and services that focus on niche industries or regulatory compliance.
In the coming months, both ventures are expected to hire hundreds of engineers and open offices in major cities, including New York, London, and San Francisco. The competition for talent is likely to intensify, with salaries for AI engineers already exceeding $500,000 per year at top firms. Anthropic and OpenAI will need to offer not only high pay but also compelling missions and cultures to attract the best candidates.
The launch of these joint ventures marks a new chapter in the enterprise AI story. For years, AI has been the domain of cloud providers and research labs, with applications limited to specific use cases. Now, with billions of dollars and some of the world's most powerful investment firms backing dedicated deployment vehicles, enterprise AI is poised to become a core part of how companies operate. Whether this leads to a new era of productivity or simply a transfer of wealth from investors to AI engineers remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the race is on.
Source: TechCrunch News