Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic is nearing a $1.5 billion joint venture with Wall Street giants Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Hellman & Friedman to distribute AI tools to private-equity-backed companies, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. The platform will target applications across finance, operations, customer service, analytics, and enterprise software.
Investment Structure
Anthropic, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman are leading the effort, each expected to commit roughly $300 million to the venture. Goldman Sachs will join as a founding investor with an estimated $150 million contribution. The structure brings together major financial institutions and an AI developer under one push to commercialize enterprise-grade tools. A formal announcement could come as early as May 4.
Valuation and Competitive Pressure
Interest in Anthropic has accelerated as its enterprise-focused AI products gain traction. The company is reportedly considering a funding round that could lift its valuation beyond $300 billion, with some projections as high as $900 billion. Private equity players are rushing to secure early exposure to AI infrastructure and software providers. Meanwhile, rival OpenAI has been pursuing similar partnerships with private-equity firms to expand adoption of its business tools. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are seen as potential IPO candidates later this year, adding urgency for investors to lock in positions ahead of any listing.
Hardware Push: Talks with UK Chip Startup
Separately, Anthropic has entered early-stage discussions with UK-based semiconductor startup Fractile. The talks focus on securing specialized inference chips designed to run trained AI models more efficiently. Such hardware is critical for lowering operating costs and improving processing speeds as demand for AI workloads grows. The discussions underline how developers are working to secure compute supply alongside expanding their software reach through partnerships like the proposed joint venture.