OpenAI turns to private equity firms to scale enterprise AI efforts: Report

OpenAI plans to shift its focus towards enterprise AI efforts, for which it is negotiating with major private equity players, including TPG Inc., Advent International Corporation, Bain Capital and Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) to form a joint venture. 

The joint venture is valued at $10 billion in pre-money valuation, according to a Reuters report. This will allow OpenAI to distribute its enterprise AI tools to hundreds of companies, allowing it to scale its AI tools quickly into the corporate world. 

The report further states that these firms would invest around $4 billion into this new joint venture, and they will benefit from equity stakes as OpenAI grows in value. 

It was further stated that TGP will act as the anchor investor, putting in the highest amount of money and leading the deal. Whereas, Advent International Corporation, Bain Capital, and BAM will be the co-founding investors. 

Each firm would get a seat on the board, meaning they would have a role in decision-making and strategy. However, the deal is yet to be finalised formally. 

On the other hand, Anthropic is also pursuing similar joint venture plans with Blackstone, Permira, and Hellman & Friedman to distribute its Claude AI technology to companies. Similar to OpenAI, Anthropic will also be able to distribute its Claude AI tools across companies, increasing its user base and accelerating enterprise adoption. 

The private equity firms will also get early or priority access to new enterprise AI tools and technologies released by the AI companies. In addition, they also profit more if OpenAI’s tools become widely adopted globally. 

OpenAI is expected to move away from its all-purpose strategy and is evaluating areas to scale back as it sharpens its focus on coding and enterprise AI tools.