{"text":[[{"start":8.5,"text":"Anthropic has formed a more than $1.5bn joint venture with Wall Street groups including Blackstone, Goldman Sachs and Hellman & Friedman to deploy its AI across their sprawling investment portfolios. "}],[{"start":21.7,"text":"The new consulting business will be funded with initial investments of $300mn from Anthropic, Blackstone and H&F, while Goldman and private equity firm General Atlantic will commit $150mn apiece, according to three people briefed on the matter. "}],[{"start":37.75,"text":"Participants in the JV also include Leonard Green, Apollo Global Management, Sequoia Capital and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, according to a press release on Monday."}],[{"start":48.7,"text":"The new company, which will have many Anthropic engineers embedded within it, aims to open commercial markets for Anthropic’s powerful AI technologies."}],[{"start":56.95,"text":"They include its Claude Code software tool, which has taken the business world by storm this year, causing a sell-off in many listed software companies and fuelling fears that AI will harm many privately held enterprise software businesses."}],[{"start":72.3,"text":"The partnership comes as Anthropic seeks to generate new revenues that can help justify its heavy spending on data centre infrastructure, ahead of an expected public listing as soon as this year."}],[{"start":83.75,"text":"“This new firm brings additional operating capability to the ecosystem and capital from leading alternative asset managers,” Anthropic chief financial officer Krishna Rao said in a statement."}],[{"start":94.4,"text":"The JV investors are among the largest owners of technology companies worldwide, with their diverse portfolios also spanning infrastructure, professional service and industrial companies where AI technology is expected to drive major efficiencies."}],[{"start":110.65,"text":"Blackstone, the world’s largest private firm, led much of the early talks around the venture and is considered a “founding partner” alongside Goldman and H&F. "}],[{"start":121.4,"text":"Co-founder and chief executive Stephen Schwarzman has been one of the foremost champions of AI on Wall Street, having committed hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money to advance research and educational efforts into the technology. "}],[{"start":135,"text":"The firm is also the largest Wall Street investor in data centres, having committed $300bn of its own capital to the digital infrastructure needed to power AI algorithms. "}],[{"start":146.25,"text":"“We believe it can help break down one of the most significant bottlenecks to enterprise AI adoption by expanding the number of highly skilled implementation partners,” said Jonathan Gray, president of the $1.3tn in assets investment group."}],[{"start":160,"text":"Goldman, which will make the investment from its asset management unit and not its own balance sheet, said the venture was “a compelling investment opportunity for our clients”."}],[{"start":169.75,"text":"Many on Wall Street are fearful that AI technologies could present challenges to companies in their portfolios and are in a race to quickly adopt the technology as a way to create new business opportunities or cut costs. "}],[{"start":183.1,"text":"The JV is expected to keep its partners at the cutting edge of AI technologies while also producing an investment return, according to one person briefed on the talks, although it does not have a valuation beyond the collective capital commitments of more than $1.5bn."}],[{"start":200.2,"text":"“The near-term value to our portfolio companies is substantial, and we are excited by the long-term potential to build the definitive enterprise AI services platform,” said Patrick Healy, chief executive of Hellman & Friedman."}],[{"start":214.29999999999998,"text":"OpenAI, Anthropic’s rival AI start-up, is also nearing a similar venture with Wall Street firms including TPG, Bain Capital, Advent International, Brookfield and Goanna Capital, the FT reported last month. "}],[{"start":236.7,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1777904121_8187.mp3"}