OpenAI, Anthropic Form Private Equity Partnerships
WASHINGTON — OpenAI and Anthropic are forming partnerships with private equity firms, Axios reported Sunday.
The partnerships indicate a shift in how leading AI laboratories access capital, away from the venture capital model that has characterized the sector in recent years. Private equity firms have historically been associated with mature, cash-flow-generating businesses, rather than the capital-intensive AI industry.
Details of the specific private equity firms involved and the financial terms of the arrangements were not immediately clear from the Axios report.
The move comes as both companies face substantial capital requirements to fund the computing infrastructure needed to train and deploy increasingly powerful AI systems. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has raised tens of billions of dollars in recent funding rounds, while Anthropic, the creator of Claude, has similarly attracted investment from backers including Amazon and Google.
Private equity involvement typically introduces different expectations compared with venture capital. PE firms generally seek more structured returns and paths to profitability — dynamics that differ from those of venture-backed AI laboratories investing heavily in research and infrastructure.
The partnerships come amid rising AI company valuations and growing capital requirements for developing frontier AI systems, which have expanded the range of financial partners companies are pursuing.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic are headquartered in San Francisco and have been at the center of the global race to develop advanced AI systems.
