OpenAI plans to form a multi-billion dollar joint venture with four major private equity firms to secure enterprise AI channels before its IPO.

According to 1M AI News , OpenAI is in advanced talks with four private equity firms—TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital, and Brookfield Asset Management—to form a joint venture with a pre-money valuation of approximately $10 billion. The joint venture will deploy OpenAI's enterprise-level products to these PE firms' portfolio companies and the wider market. The PE firms will collectively invest approximately $4 billion, acquiring equity and board seats, with TPG acting as the lead investor. OpenAI will offer preferred stock to investors, with returns prior to common shareholders and limited downside risk.

Anthropic is also pursuing a similar deal, negotiating with Blackstone, Permira, and Hellman & Friedman to form a joint venture with private equity firms contributing approximately $1 billion, but offering common stock without preferential return protection.

The two companies share the same logic in vying for a PE partnership: PE firms control a large number of enterprise clients and influence their software and AI budgets, and both companies could IPO as early as this year. In the enterprise AI market, Anthropic is widely considered to be ahead of OpenAI. As of the end of last month, OpenAI's enterprise business had annualized revenue of $10 billion, accounting for 40% of its total annualized revenue of $25 billion. The joint venture will also help promote OpenAI's enterprise platform Frontier, launched last month, and its Frontier Alliances program, in partnership with consulting giants such as BCG and McKinsey. None of the parties have commented on the joint venture plan, and the terms of the transaction are still subject to change.