(Editor’s note: The headline and story has been updated to include Anthropic’s announcement)
Anthropic has sealed a joint venture with several top Wall Street firms, including Blackstone (NYSE:BX) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), the companies announced on Monday.
The companies did not disclose financial details on the deal. However, Anthropic, Blackstone, and Hellman & Friedman are expected to be the main investors, each contributing about $300 million, the Wall Street Journal earlier reported.
Goldman Sachs is also expected to be a founding investor, with a contribution of around $150 million, as per the report. Other firms, including General Atlantic, are part of the deal, bringing the total expected investment to about $1.5 billion.
The investors aim to establish a company that will act as a consulting arm for Anthropic. This new entity will help businesses, including the private-equity firms’ portfolio companies, integrate AI into their operations.
Anthropic Faces Risks Amid Rapid Growth
This joint venture comes at a crucial time for Anthropic. The AI firm was in talks with investors about new financing that could value the company at $900 billion, more than doubling its $380 billion valuation in February. This would potentially make it the most valuable AI startup, surpassing rival OpenAI.
However, the company faced a setback when the Pentagon’s tech chief declared Anthropic’s Claude models a supply chain risk. This led to discussions about phasing out their usage over the months. Despite this, he stated, some “exceptions” could be granted based on integration complexities.
Notably, last week, Goldman Sachs barred its Hong Kong bankers from using Anthropic's Claude models, reflecting rising U.S.–China tech tensions, even though Hong Kong is not subject to mainland China's AI ban, reported the Financial Times. The bank had earlier tied up with the artificial intelligence (AI) startup to develop AI agents to automate key banking functions such as trade and transaction accounting, and client vetting and onboarding.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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