A New Model for Selling AI to Big Business
On Monday, Anthropic unveiled a joint venture valued at $1.5 billion, with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and Goldman Sachs as founding partners. The venture is backed by a who’s who of alternative asset managers including Apollo Global Management and Sequoia Capital. Anthropic itself is putting $300 million on the table, matching the commitments from Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman. The goal is clear: embed Anthropic’s models directly into the workflows of midsized companies across industries, using the forward deployed engineer (FDE) model popularized by Palantir. This isn’t just a partnership. It is a structural lock in. By tying AI services to the investment portfolios of these massive funds, Anthropic ensures that its technology becomes the default for hundreds of portfolio companies.
The OpenAI Counterpunch Is Even Bigger
Just hours before Anthropic’s announcement, Bloomberg revealed that OpenAI is raising $4 billion for its own venture called The Development Company, valued at $10 billion. Investors include TPG, Brookfield Asset Management, Advent, and Bain Capital. There is no overlap between the investor groups, which is a polite way of saying that the two AI labs are carving up the institutional capital markets. The logic is identical: raise money from alternative asset managers to create dedicated channels for enterprise AI deals, giving the investors preferred sales access and capturing more value from contracts. Both labs are burning cash and circling IPOs. OpenAI closed $122 billion in new funding at an $852 billion valuation in March. Anthropic is seeking $50 billion at a $900 billion valuation. These joint ventures are less about innovation and more about securing distribution through financial engineering.
Source: Techcrunch
