OpenAI, Anthropic eye services acquisitions to speed enterprise AI deployment

OpenAI and Anthropic are pushing beyond model development into the business of putting artificial intelligence to work inside companies, with private-equity-backed ventures now in talks to buy services firms that help businesses deploy AI. OpenAI’s new venture is already in advanced discussions on three deals, a sign that the competition between the two labs is shifting toward the implementation layer where corporate spending is won and defended.

The acquisition talks come as both companies race to build distribution channels into enterprise accounts through Wall Street partners. Bloomberg reported that OpenAI finalized a $10 billion joint venture with private-equity firms to deploy AI. Reuters-linked reporting said Anthropic was finalizing a roughly $1.5 billion venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hellman & Friedman and other firms to sell AI tools to private-equity-backed companies.

The strategy is straightforward: use private equity relationships to reach a concentrated base of portfolio companies, then embed OpenAI and Anthropic more deeply in day-to-day operations. Reuters said the ventures could bring in hundreds of engineers and consultants to install, customize and support AI systems for corporate customers. That would move both labs up the value chain, capturing work that now goes to outside consultants, systems integrators and enterprise software vendors.

Axios has framed the enterprise push as part of the path toward potential initial public offerings that could come as soon as fall 2026. TechCrunch reported that the joint ventures are designed to create new enterprise-AI distribution channels through asset-manager relationships, giving the labs preferred access to companies that their investors already own or influence.

That could reshape the competitive map well beyond consumer chatbots. If OpenAI or Anthropic can place engineers, consultants and model support directly into customer workflows, the resulting switching costs would rise sharply. That would make the tools harder to displace and put pressure on firms such as Accenture, Deloitte and McKinsey, which have built large practices around AI transformation work.

Reuters also reported that OpenAI offered private-equity firms a guaranteed 17.5% annual return over five years to secure participation in its venture, underscoring how aggressively the company is trying to build the new channel. Reuters said the companies declined to comment, and the specific acquisition targets have not been identified publicly.

The deals mark a clear turn in the AI arms race. The fight is no longer only about who builds the strongest model. It is also about who controls the services layer that turns that model into a durable enterprise relationship.