Anthropic is finalizing a roughly $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Hellman & Friedman to deliver artificial intelligence tools to private-equity-backed companies. The move signals a major push by Wall Street into enterprise AI, which could have implications for crypto-adjacent sectors like AI token projects and decentralized computing.
The venture, reported by The Wall Street Journal, will introduce AI applications across finance, operations, customer service, analytics, and enterprise software. Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman are each expected to commit about $300 million, while Goldman Sachs will contribute approximately $150 million. Other financial firms may join before the structure is finalized. A formal announcement could come as early as May 4.
Anthropic is also reportedly exploring a new funding round that could lift its valuation beyond $300 billion, with some projections as high as $900 billion. The company has entered early-stage discussions with UK-based semiconductor startup Fractile to secure access to specialized inference chips, which are critical for lowering operating costs and improving processing speeds as demand for AI workloads grows.
The venture intensifies competition with OpenAI, which has been exploring similar private-equity partnerships. Both firms are seen as potential candidates for an initial public offering later this year, adding urgency for investors seeking positions ahead of any listing.
