The battle for enterprise AI is moving from Silicon Valley servers to Wall Street's capital core. According to Reuters sources, OpenAI is in deep negotiations with four top private equity firms to create a joint venture with a pre-money valuation of $10 billion. The four PE giants are expected to jointly invest around $4 billion—about $1 billion each—in exchange for equity and board seats.
Preferred Equity Gives OpenAI an Edge Over Anthropic
The firms involved are TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital, and Brookfield Asset Management. Unlike rival Anthropic, which offers ordinary shares in similar talks, OpenAI is offering preferred equity that provides priority returns and limits downside risk. This structure makes the deal more attractive to investors who worry about AI hype.
Win-Win: PE Firms Hedge AI Disruption, OpenAI Gains a Sales Army
For private equity, generative AI threatens to upend business models across their portfolios. The joint venture gives them early access to OpenAI's enterprise tools—such as the recently launched Frontier platform—and lets them push AI integration into portfolio companies. For OpenAI, PE firms control enterprise software budgets and procurement decisions, effectively giving the startup a direct channel to deploy its products at scale across industries.
Race to IPO: Both OpenAI and Anthropic Eye 2026 Listing
The competition for enterprise customers is fierce. Anthropic, founded by former OpenAI executives, is considered slightly ahead in enterprise adoption. Both companies are under pressure to go public this year. OpenAI's annualized revenue hit $25 billion, with $10 billion coming from enterprise clients. Securing a PE-backed joint venture could strengthen OpenAI's moat and boost its valuation ahead of the IPO. Which firm will win the capital war remains to be seen.