Anthropic and OpenAI announced separate but structurally similar joint ventures in May 2026, each designed to expand enterprise AI sales through partnerships with major asset managers and private equity firms.
Anthropic revealed its venture on Monday, with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and Goldman Sachs as founding partners. Additional backers include Apollo Global Management, General Atlantic, GIC, Leonard Green, and Sequoia Capital. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal, valued the venture at $1.5 billion, reflecting a $300 million commitment each from Anthropic, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman.
Hours before that announcement, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI was raising funds for a separate venture called The Development Company. OpenAI’s effort is larger in scale, targeting $4 billion from 19 investors against a $10 billion valuation. Named investors include TPG, Brookfield Asset Management, Advent, and Bain Capital. The source notes no apparent overlap between the two ventures’ investor groups.
Both ventures follow the same underlying logic: raising capital from alternative asset managers to create new channels for enterprise AI deals. Investors are expected to provide preferred access to their portfolio companies as potential customers, while capturing value from any resulting contracts. The new capital would also allow each venture to deploy more engineering resources directly at client sites — a model described in the source as the “forward-deployed engineer” approach, popularized by Palantir.
Anthropic described one such engagement as its engineering team working alongside clinicians and IT staff to build tools fitted to existing workflows, with similar engagements planned across mid-sized companies in multiple industries.
The announcements come as both companies raise funds at a rapid pace. OpenAI secured $122 billion in new funding in late March 2026 at an $852 billion valuation. Anthropic, according to a separate TechCrunch report, is in the final stages of its own round, seeking $50 billion at a $900 billion valuation. Both companies are also reported to be considering possible IPOs.
Source: TechCrunch