OpenAI’s $4 billion response to Anthropic: New unit for aggressive AI push in corporates

OpenAI said Monday it will launch a new company with more than $4 billion in initial investment to help organizations build and deploy artificial intelligence systems and will acquire Tomoro, an artificial intelligence consulting firm, to rapidly grow the unit.

After its early models resonated strongly with consumers, OpenAI has been working aggressively to sign enterprise contracts and establish a major presence in the business world that will see large-scale deployment of AI.

The initiative, which will be majority owned and controlled by OpenAI, also comes as rival Anthropic has achieved strong success in the enterprise AI space with its Claude model family, which has seen rapid adoption among enterprises.

New Artificial Intelligence Support

OpenAI said the new firm, called OpenAI Deployment Company, will help the ChatGPT maker place engineers specializing in edge AI deployment into organizations who will then work closely with various teams to identify where AI can make the biggest impact.

The acquisition of Tomoro, a consulting firm that helps businesses deploy AI, will bring about 150 experienced AI engineers and “deployment experts” to the new unit from day one.

Tomoro was founded in 2023 in alliance with OpenAI and counts companies such as Mattel, Red Bull, Tesco and Virgin Atlantic among its customers, according to its website.

Reuters reported last week that joint ventures OpenAI and Anthropic, formed separately with private equity firms, were in talks to acquire services companies that help businesses use artificial intelligence.

The ChatGPT maker said OpenAI’s distribution unit is a committed multi-year partnership between OpenAI and 19 firms, with the TPG-led partnership co-founded by Advent, Bain Capital and Brookfield.