OpenAI is in advanced talks with several private equity firms to form a joint venture that would distribute its enterprise products across PE portfolios and beyond, sources familiar with the matter said.
No final decision has been taken and the plans are subject to change.
Sources named TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital, and Brookfield Asset Management as potential partners, said the proposed deal has a pre‑money valuation near US$10 billion and could involve about US$4 billion in commitments, with TPG serving as the anchor investor committing the most capital; the private equity investors would receive equity stakes in the venture and influence how the technology is deployed across their portfolio companies, and all four firms would secure board seats, the sources said.
Advent, TPG, and Brookfield declined to comment; Bain did not respond.
Anthropic is also in discussions with private equity firms including Blackstone, Permira, and Hellman & Friedman about a separate joint venture to sell its Claude AI technology to portfolio companies, a person said, and the private equity firms would take an equity stake of about US$1 billion; the plans are subject to change.
Blackstone, Permira, and Hellman & Friedman declined to comment; Anthropic did not respond.
People familiar with the talks said OpenAI is offering preferred equity in its deal, while Anthropic would offer common equity, a difference that affects investor protections.
Sources said both AI companies are courting private equity because PE firms control many enterprise buyers and because AI is reshaping software valuations and dealmaking.
OpenAI declined to comment on the joint venture and Fidji Simo, chief executive officer of applications at OpenAI, said in an emailed statement that the company is building a deployment arm called Frontier Alliances to work directly with enterprises and will share details when finalized.
đź”— Source:Â Reuters
Originally written by: Naomi Li Gan
Source: Tech in Asia
Published on: 17 March 2026
Link to original article: OpenAI in talks with private equity on AI venture: sources
