OpenAI is on the verge of finalizing a new $100 billion funding round, and Anthropic just closed its own massive $30 billion raise. One thing is clear: the traditional concept of investor loyalty is hanging by a thread. At least a dozen direct investors in OpenAI were also announced as backers in Anthropic’s recent $30 billion raise. These include Founders Fund, Iconiq, Insight Partners, and Sequoia Capital.
Some dual investments are understandable when they come from the hedge fund or asset manager world, where the strategy is to invest in public stocks, competitors or not. These firms include D1, Fidelity, and TPG. One case was particularly striking. Affiliated funds of BlackRock joined Anthropic’s raise even though BlackRock’s senior managing director and board member, Adebayo Ogunlesi, also sits on OpenAI’s board. In that world, if various BlackRock funds get a chance to own OpenAI stock, they are likely to take it, regardless of senior leadership associations.
We all know the history of the OpenAI and Microsoft relationship, which explains why Microsoft is hedging its bets. The same logic applies to Nvidia. But venture capital funds have, until now, operated differently. VCs market themselves as founder-friendly and helpful. The idea is that when a VC firm invests, it will help that startup succeed, particularly against its major rivals. If you are an owner of both OpenAI and Anthropic, who is your loyalty to, besides your own investors?
Additionally, startups are private companies. They typically share confidential business information with their direct investors, data that is not publicly disclosed. In many cases, VCs also take board seats, which carries a fiduciary responsibility to their portfolio companies.
This case is especially interesting because Sam Altman himself comes from the venture capital world as a former president of Y Combinator. He knows the drill. In 2024, he reportedly gave his investors a list of OpenAI’s rivals that he did not want them to back, largely companies launched by former OpenAI employees, including Anthropic, xAI, and Safe Superintelligence. Altman later denied that he told investors they would be barred from future rounds, but he did admit saying that if they made non-passive investments in these rivals, they would no longer receive OpenAI’s confidential business information.
AI is breaking the mold because of the record-breaking amounts of money the largest labs are raising, fueled by unprecedented growth and immense data center needs. When the funding needs are so great and the potential returns so large, who can be expected to say no?
Not all venture investors have slid down this slippery slope. Andreessen Horowitz backs OpenAI but not Anthropic. Menlo Ventures backs Anthropic but not OpenAI. In our research, we found a dozen investors that appear to only have direct investments in one of these companies, not both. Others include Bessemer Venture Partners, General Catalyst, and Greenoaks.
Still, the fact that this longstanding rule has been tossed by some of the most respected firms in Silicon Valley, like Sequoia, is notable. One investor we reached out to simply shrugged and said that as long as the firm does not have a board seat, no one sees the harm in it anymore. Conflict-of-interest policies should now become another thing that founders ask about before signing a term sheet, no matter who it is from.