Valuation of $10 billion! OpenAI accelerates the enterprise market, plans to partner with TPG, Bain, and other PE giants to establish a joint venture

OpenAI is in deep negotiations with several private equity firms to establish a joint venture aimed at leveraging PE's extensive influence over corporate clients to accelerate the commercialization of its AI products. Meanwhile, competitor Anthropic is also advancing similar arrangements, and the battle for dominance in the enterprise AI market is rapidly intensifying.

On March 16, according to Reuters, the negotiations involve TPG, Ares Management, Bain Capital, and Bow Capital Management, with a pre-investment valuation of the joint venture estimated at approximately $10 billion. Insiders revealed that the PE firms plan to collectively invest about $4 billion to acquire equity and board seats in the joint venture, and they will have a say in how OpenAI's technology is deployed within their portfolio companies.

Through this structure, OpenAI will open a fast track into the enterprise market, while PE firms can provide solutions for portfolio companies facing pressure from AI transformation. According to media reports citing three insiders, both OpenAI and Anthropic are actively seeking PE partnerships, driven by the urgency of both companies planning to go public this year.

TPG Leads $4 Billion Investment; Four PE Firms Gain Board Seats

According to the proposed arrangement, TPG will act as the anchor investor committing the largest investment, while Ares Management, Bain Capital, and Bow Capital Management will participate as co-founding investors. All four firms will secure board seats in the joint venture.

In terms of equity structure, OpenAI will offer investors "preferred shares," a class of equity that provides returns ahead of common shareholders and includes downside protection mechanisms. According to media reports citing insiders, the joint venture will help promote OpenAI's recently launched enterprise service platform, Frontier. This platform is central to the "Frontier Alliance" initiative, which aims to embed AI agents into core business operations by collaborating OpenAI engineers with consulting firms such as Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, Accenture, and Capgemini.

OpenAI's Chief Executive Officer of Application Business, Sam Altman, stated in a written statement: "As demand for AI continues to surge, we want to help clients deploy these technologies in every effective way, deeply embedding AI within their organizations. We will share more information once the details are finalized."

Meanwhile, reports citing insiders indicate that Anthropic is in talks with Blackstone Group, Permira, and Herman Friedman to establish a joint venture to sell its Claude AI technology to the companies invested by these institutions. The relevant PE firms plan to invest about $1 billion and acquire equity. Last week, news first reported on the progress of Anthropic's negotiations with Blackstone and Herman Friedman. Unlike OpenAI's offering of preferred shares, Anthropic is providing common equity to investors without priority returns or downside protection clauses.

Enterprise AI Competition Intensifies: Scale and First-Mover Advantages

In the competitive landscape of the enterprise AI market, Anthropic is currently widely regarded as being in a leading position, with a higher adoption rate among corporate clients compared to OpenAI Despite Anthropic's first-mover advantage in the enterprise AI market, OpenAI's enterprise business scale has rapidly approached. According to media reports citing informed sources, as of the end of last month, OpenAI's enterprise business annualized revenue reached $10 billion, accounting for 40% of its total annualized revenue of $25 billion.

The rapid evolution of AI is fundamentally reshaping the investment logic of private equity. The wave of automation is impacting the valuation foundation of the software industry, making it difficult for merger and acquisition firms to reliably underwrite transactions, while also posing long-term survival challenges for portfolio companies that rely on traditional business models. In this context, private equity firms are not only key strategic partners in the competition between OpenAI and Anthropic but also stakeholders urgently seeking solutions under the pressure of AI transformation