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OpenAI and Anthropic There has been competition for workers, clients and the public. Competing artificial intelligence laboratories have been taking opposing positions on policy proposals, and their chief executive officer was the only person who had not joined a dozen industry leaders at a business summit earlier this year. But they do have a big overlap: their investors.

According to the analysis of PitchBook data on the platform for tracking start-ups ' investments in Wireline, some 90 venture capital companies and other fund managers have invested in OpenAI and Anthropic over the past few years. Data show that OpenAI shares with Anthropic about 42 per cent of its overall investors. About a third of Anthropic investors are also supporters of OpenAI, including large companies such as Redwood Capital, Greylock, Founders Fund, Redpoint Ventures, Emerson Corporate and Sound Ventures.

Just last week, Anthropic published a financing announcement listing 31 investors, at least 13 of whom hold OpenAI shares, according to PitchBook data and WIRED reports. The number of ordinary investors may be underestimated because gathering information on private investment is challenging. Connected magazine found that in the PitchBook data, OpenAI's roster lacked at least some investors, including Amazon.

The degree of overlap is striking for two fierce competitors who have started to finance within a few years. Three experts in the venture capital industry described this commonality as unusual and even unprecedented. This phenomenon reflects recent developments in the venture capital industry, the emergence of two extraordinary companies, the mobilization of unprecedented funds and extensive competition between them and other companies in the area of artificial intelligence.

Professor at Harvard Business School, Tom Nicholas, author of the book Venture Investment: American History, said: “The stock structure that you see now truly reflects the views of mature investors on this market, and the answer seems to be that few people believe that it will be a winner-take-all market or, if it is, who will be in charge.”

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Since the Anthropic and OpenAI plans to be listed for the first time this year, the convergence of investors is also noteworthy. First-time public equity is usually an opportunity for investors to realize the benefits of ownership of start-up companies. Last year, however, only two thirds of IPOs attracted a significant increase in value. By betting on OpenAI and Anthropic, the investor ' s chances of success could double.

“These large investors do not view these companies as overlapping technologies, but rather as protecting their ability to generate returns”, PitchBook, Director of Risk Investment Research, Kyle Stanley, states.

OpenAI and Anthropic did not respond to the request for comment. Several venture capital companies that invested in OpenAI and Anthropic also refused or failed to respond to requests for evaluation of the decision to support them.

In order to avoid endangering industrial relations, a few require anonymity, and everyone claims that OpenAI and Anthropic have different investment opportunities from any they have had before.

Stanford University indicated that historically, venture capital companies had focused their bets on a company in the field of competition to avoid conflicts of interest. Companies sometimes share proprietary information with investors or seek advice or governance from them, while holding the shares of competitors can generate awkward dialogue.

However, with the expansion of the Fund, the venture capital sector is also growing. Companies are supporting an increasing number of start-ups, and these companies have remained private for longer and have raised more funds than ever before. OpenAI and Anthropic each raised over $100 billion, with an estimate of close to $1 trillion.

As a result, the boundaries between different categories of investment firms have become increasingly blurred over the past decade. Some 30 overlapping Anthropic and OpenAI investors in the PitchBook data were identified as hedge funds, private equity companies or wealth management agencies that are usually decentralized. The rest are traditional angels or venture capital companies and now follow the same strategy.

Stanford said: “Any single investor will own a small share of a company, so conflict is not a major problem.” They have less internal information, and their ability to influence the development trajectory of companies is diminished. “Investigants have traditionally wanted to invest in one of them in order to make one of them a winner. These companies have grown so big that it doesn't matter to split up, according to Stanford.

A number of ordinary investors also invested in the artificial intelligence research laboratory of Elon Mask. It's been... SpaceX Acquisition, IPO is expected next week.

The closest similarity to artificially intelligent investors to pollinate may be from about a decade ago. Japan’s telecommunications giant, soft silver, has invested billions of dollars in Internet car companies around the world, some of which are ambitiously competing in certain countries. But in the United States, soft silver, while supporting Uber, did not end up investing in the main competitor, Lyft.

Pepsi Coke and Coca Cola

A representative of a large investor stated that his company expected the bets on OpenAI and Anthropic to be rewarded because of the widespread demand for artificial intelligence technology. Another alleged that their shares in one of the companies were too small to be considered to be in conflict with their larger shares in the other company.

A venture capitalist who helped wealthy families across the United States invest in funds, including Anthropic and OpenAI equities, described artificial intelligence as a transformative technology that would drive growth in all industries. "Why don't you want to join Pepsi and Coca-Cola at the same time?" he said, "So does it here."

Ankur Nagpal, an ordinary partner of USVC, made a similar point by pooling up to $500 in other funds. “Our goal is to create the best way for anyone to have part of the most valuable company in the future”, he said.

OpenAI ' s unusual corporate structure has over the years clearly limited the amount of returns expected by investors, and its uncertainty may have prompted some funds to share in Anthropic. And it's hard to dispel the fear of missed opportunities. The economist Steve Kaplan of the University of Chicago stated: “In this case, venture capital companies are intervening because they do not want to miss the next big event.”

For at least one investor, this overlap is unintentional. One of the start-up companies invested by Madrona Ventures was acquired by OpenAI and another by Anthropic, which eventually acquired shares in the two family-worker intelligence giants. Unintentional intersections may become more common as the rapid transformation of artificially intelligent technologies leads to more frequent rerouting by start-ups. The Stanford University in PitchBook indicated that investors might be betting on a company that pursued a certain vision, but found itself suddenly facing a business that ran counter to another investment.

A few large venture capital companies support only one of the large artificial intelligence laboratories, including Khosla Ventures and Thive Capital, supporters of OpenAI. At the same time, according to PitchBook, Menlo Ventures and General Catallyst only invested in Anthropic.

General Catallyst refuses to comment. Kosra did not respond to the request for comment.

The Menlo Ventures partner Matt Murphy told Connect magazine that the company “does its utmost” to support portfolio companies and does not support direct competitors. “Some markets may be nuanced and the two companies may appear to be in a different direction,” he said. “But we believe that this is not the case with OpenAI and Anthropic, so we never considered investing in OpenAI.”

Thrive referred to the X post published a year ago by its founder, Joshua Kushner, who spoke about the overlap in the artificial intelligence industry and wrote, “We are old school ... but we are successive monogamous.