Anthropic nears $1.5 billion AI venture with Wall Street firms

Anthropic is nearing a roughly $1.5 billion joint venture with major Wall Street firms including Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and Hellman & Friedman to expand sales of its artificial intelligence (AI) tools to private-equity-backed companies.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the proposed venture would create a new channel for the Anthropic to market and deploy its enterprise AI products across a broad network of portfolio companies owned by buyout firms, as competition intensifies among leading AI developers to lock in long-term corporate customers.

The Journal reported that Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman are expected to anchor the initiative, with each contributing about $300 million.

Goldman Sachs is set to join as a founding investor with an investment of roughly $150 million, while other financial firms are also expected to participate.

The joint venture is expected to focus on helping private-equity-owned businesses integrate Anthropic’s AI systems into daily operations, including workflow automation, productivity improvements and cost reductions.

It would also deepen Anthropic’s push into enterprise consulting at a time when rival AI firms are pursuing similar large-scale commercial partnerships.

Anthropic, backed by Amazon and Google, has rapidly emerged as one of the strongest players in generative AI through its Claude models and coding products.

The company is also exploring fresh fundraising at a sharply higher valuation amid surging investor demand for AI businesses.