Catenaa, Monday, March 16, 2026- OpenAI is in advanced talks with private equity firms, including TPG, to form a joint venture that would distribute its enterprise products across the portfolio companies and others.
Reuters reported that the deal, which includes Advent International, Bain Capital, and Brookfield Asset Management, proposed a pre-money valuation of about $10 billion and could give OpenAI a faster route into corporate adoption while providing the PE firms with a potential lifeline for companies in their portfolios that are exposed to AI disruption.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic are aggressively courting private equity firms because they control enterprise companies and influence how businesses budget for software and AI, a race growing more urgent as both companies vie to go public as soon as this year, the report said.
Under the proposed arrangement, the private equity investors would commit about $4 billion and receive equity stakes in the venture, along with influence over how OpenAI’s technology is deployed across their portfolio companies, the report said.
TPG would serve as the anchor investor, committing the most capital, while Advent, Bain, and Brookfield would participate as co-founding investors.
All four firms would secure board seats in the joint venture, the report said.
The arrangement would also give the PE firms early access to OpenAI’s enterprise tools and the potential to benefit when adoption expands beyond their portfolios, Reuters report said.
Anthropic is also in discussions with private equity firms, including Blackstone, Permira, and Hellman & Friedman, to form a joint venture that would sell its Claude AI technology to companies backed by those firms.
As part of the deal, the PE firms would take an equity stake of approximately $1 billion, the report said cautioning that the plans, including the figures, are subject to change and no final agreement has been reached.
