OpenAI and Anthropic May Be Rivals, but Investors Aren’t Picking Sides
Key takeaways
- OpenAI shares about 42 percent of its overall investors with Anthropic, according to the data.
- Just last week, Anthropic made a fundraising announcement that named 31 investors—at least 13 of which have stakes in OpenAI, according to the PitchBook data and WIRED reporting.
- The amount of overlap is astonishing for two fierce competitors that began their fundraising within a couple of years of one another.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Open AI and Anthropic have battled for workers, customers, and public attention. The rival AI labs have been on opposite sides of policy proposals, and their CEOs were the only ones not to link hands among a dozen industry leaders at a business summit earlier this year. But they do have one big area of overlap: their 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 percent of its overall investors with Anthropic, according to the data. Roughly a third of Anthropic investors are also OpenAI backers, including major firms like Sequoia Capital, Greylock, Founders Fund, Redpoint Ventures, Emerson Collective, and Sound Ventures.
Just last week, Anthropic made a fundraising announcement that named 31 investors—at least 13 of which have stakes in OpenAI, according to the PitchBook data and WIRED reporting. The number of common investors may be an undercount, because collecting information about private investments is challenging. WIRED identified at least a couple of investors missing from OpenAI’s roster in the PitchBook data, including Amazon.