OpenAI is offering private equity firms a guaranteed minimum return, outpacing rival Anthropic, as it pushes deeper into enterprise artificial intelligence.
People familiar with the matter say the ChatGPT creator is pitching private equity firms on an opportunity to invest in a joint venture that offers a 17.5% guaranteed minimum return, preferred equity, priority payout, downside protection and early access to OpenAI’s latest models, Reuters reports.
Sources say the 17.5% return is above-market rates, and Anthropic’s private equity pitch came with no such returns.
A joint venture typically involves the creation of a new entity, and in this case, OpenAI and a private equity firm become partners. A private equity firm acts as an investor, pouring money into the joint venture and the distribution arm by converting its portfolio of companies into customers. The invested funds will be used to deploy OpenAI’s engineers to install AI models, customize workflows and build tools for the customers.
The joint venture makes money through implementation fees, usage, revenue sharing and co-owned products, according to the sources.
The strategy allows OpenAI to roll out its enterprise AI tools to potentially hundreds of customers owned by private equity firms, instead of chasing companies one at a time. OpenAI is targeting private equity firms TPG and Advent International.
The news comes as both OpenAI and Anthropic gear up for potential IPOs this year. OpenAI is estimated to have an $830 billion valuation, while Anthropic is valued at $300 billion.
OpenAI, TPG and Advent declined to comment. Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment.
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