OpenAI is aggressively targeting the enterprise market, offering private equity firms a guaranteed 17.5% return to deploy its AI tools. This move follows Anthropic’s Pentagon blacklisting, with OpenAI aiming to secure business clients by customizing models. Despite some firms hesitating, OpenAI sees a crucial window to dominate the sector.

OpenAI has wasted no time capitalising on Anthropic’s Pentagon fallout. Days after the US Department of Defense blacklisted Anthropic as a “supply-chain risk to national security”—and hours after CEO Sam Altman struck his own deal with the military—OpenAI is aggressively moving to displace its rival in the one market where Anthropic has historically held the edge: enterprise.According to Reuters, OpenAI is offering private equity firms a guaranteed minimum return of 17.5% to join a joint venture focused on deploying its AI tools to businesses. That’s a considerably sweeter pitch than what Anthropic has been putting on the table, where no such guaranteed return exists. The JV, first reported by Bloomberg, is being structured at a pre-money valuation of roughly $10 billion, with firms including TPG, Advent International, Bain Capital and Brookfield Asset Management in discussions to commit around $4 billion combined.

OpenAI is building a deployment arm, and using Anthropic’s stumble as the opening

The timing is deliberate. As the Wall Street Journal reported, OpenAI’s applications CEO Fidji Simo told staff in an all-hands last week that Anthropic’s enterprise success—driven by Claude Code and its Cowork product—should be a “wake-up call.” The company is now deprioritising sprawling side projects and doubling down on coding and business customers, the areas where Anthropic has built the most loyal, sticky user base.The JV structure is designed to absorb the high upfront costs of deploying engineers to customise models for enterprise clients—a problem both companies face as they push toward IPOs potentially as early as this year. Boston Consulting Group’s AI unit told Reuters the logic is straightforward: once a business has a customised model baked into its systems, switching costs become significant. “There’s a big race to lock in as many desks as possible,” BCG’s Matt Kropp said.

Not every PE firm is buying in

Not everyone is sold. Thoma Bravo, one of the largest software-focused buyout firms, walked away after internal discussions led by managing partner Orlando Bravo raised questions about the long-term profit profile of these partnerships, Reuters reported. Several other firms have also passed, arguing that big PE players already have direct access to both AI companies without needing to commit capital.Still, with Anthropic now tied up in a legal fight against the US government over its Pentagon designation, OpenAI has a window—and it’s moving fast to use it.