OpenAI Plans to Form $10B Joint Venture with Four PE Firms to Capture Enterprise AI Market

OpenAI is in talks with four private equity firms—TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital, and Brookfield Asset Management—to form a joint venture valued at approximately $10 billion pre-investment. The JV will deploy OpenAI's enterprise products to the portfolio companies of these PE firms and the broader market. The PE side will contribute around $4 billion for equity and board seats, with TPG leading the investment. OpenAI offers preferred shares to investors, which come with priority returns and limited downside risk.

Anthropic is also advancing a similar transaction, negotiating with Blackstone, Permira, and Hellman & Friedman to form a JV with about $1 billion in PE investment, but offering common shares without priority return protection. Both companies aim to leverage PE's enterprise client resources to capture market share and plan to IPO as early as this year. Currently, OpenAI's enterprise business has an annualized revenue of $10 billion, accounting for 40% of its total $25 billion annualized revenue. The JV will also promote OpenAI's Frontier platform and the Frontier Alliances program in partnership with BCG and McKinsey.