OpenAI and Anthropic may be competitors, but investors aren’t choosing sides

OpenAI and Anthropy She fought for workers, customers, and public attention. The rival AI labs were on opposite sides of the policy proposals, and their CEOs were the only ones not collaborating among dozens of industry leaders at a business summit earlier this year. But they have one big area of ​​overlap: investors.

About 90 venture capital firms and other money managers have invested in both OpenAI and Anthropic over the past few years, according to a WIRED analysis of data from PitchBook, a platform that tracks startup investments. OpenAI shares about 42% of its total investors with Anthropic, according to the data. Nearly a third of Anthropic investors are also backers of OpenAI, including major companies like Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Founders Fund, Redpoint Ventures, Emerson Collective, and Sound Ventures.

Just last week, Anthropic issued a fundraising announcement identifying 31 investors — at least 13 of whom have stakes in OpenAI, PitchBook data and WIRED reports. The number of ordinary investors may be lower than the real number, because collecting information about private investments is challenging. WIRED identified at least two investors missing from the OpenAI list in the PitchBook data, including Amazon.

The amount of overlap is astonishing for two fierce competitors who started fundraising within two years of each other. Three experts who study the venture capital industry described the commonalities as unusual, or even unprecedented. This phenomenon reflects the recent development in the venture capital industry, the emergence of two extraordinary companies that have managed to raise unprecedented amounts of money, and the widely open competition between them and other companies in the field of artificial intelligence.

“The ownership structure you see now is a real insight into how sophisticated investors view this market,” says Tom Nichols, a professor at Harvard Business School and author of “The Ownership Structure that you see now is a real insight into how sophisticated investors view this market, and the answer seems to be that only a few are convinced that this market is going to be a winner-take-all, or if so, who is the dominant player.” VC: American History.

The investor crossover is also notable as Anthropic and OpenAI aim to make their stock market debut this year. Initial public offerings are often an opportunity for investors to gain ownership of a startup company. But last year, only two-thirds of IPOs attracted a significant appreciation. And with bets on both OpenAI and Anthropic, investors may double their odds of success.

“Instead of viewing these companies as disruptive technologies, what these large investors are doing is protecting their ability to create returns,” says Kyle Stanford, director of venture capital research at PitchBook.

OpenAI and Anthropic did not respond to requests for comment. Several venture capital firms that have invested in OpenAI and Anthropic also declined or did not respond to requests for comment on why they decided to back both.

A few spoke only on the condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing industry relationships, and each described the competing investment opportunities with OpenAI and Anthropic as unlike any circumstance they had encountered before.

Historically, venture capital firms have focused their bets on one company in a competitive space to avoid conflicts of interest, Stanford says. Companies sometimes share proprietary information with investors or rely on them for advice or governance, and owning stakes in competitors invites awkward conversations.