According to an exclusive report published by Reuters, OpenAI is guaranteeing private equity financiers a 17.5% minimum rate of return and preferential access to its latest models.
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Preferential Terms: According to an exclusive Reuters report, OpenAI is guaranteeing 17.5% minimum rates of returns for co-investors like TPG and Advent as part of an effort to outbid AI competitor Anthropic for joint venture investments in enterprise-focused deals.
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Competitive Space: Reuters indicates that OpenAI and Anthropic are competing for enterprise AI development contracts. By co-investing with PE firms, the winning model producer can efficiently roll out its AI tools to potentially hundreds of established portfolio companies, thereby boosting model adoption.
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Protected Capital: Typical joint venture deals involve a relatively passive capital (senior) partner enlists the help a more active investment manager (junior) partner to complete a project. While both parties must commit capital to the deal, the junior party’s returns are oftentimes subordinate, indefinitely deferred until the senior investor’s capital is returned and their preferred return is achieved.
