OpenAI’s Investors Shift Loyalty, Backing Anthropic Alongside Their Own Fundraisers

OpenAI’s upcoming $100 billion fundraising effort now faces an unusual competitive pressure from within its own investor pool. TechCrunch reports that at least twelve venture firms that have already committed capital to OpenAI are also backing Anthropic’s $30 billion round, including Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Iconiq and Insight Partners. The dual participation extends beyond pure‑play VCs; asset managers such as Fidelity, TPG and D1, as well as BlackRock‑affiliated funds, have also taken seats in Anthropic’s financing, even though BlackRock senior managing director Adebayo Ogunlesi sits on OpenAI’s board (TechCrunch).

The phenomenon challenges the traditional “founder‑friendly” narrative that venture firms have cultivated. Historically, VCs have leveraged board seats and confidential disclosures to steer portfolio companies toward success, often positioning themselves against direct rivals. In this case, the same investors are now positioned to profit from two of the sector’s biggest rivals, raising questions about fiduciary duty and conflict of interest. Business Insider, citing court documents from the Elon Musk‑OpenAI lawsuit, notes that Sam Altman—OpenAI’s CEO and former Y Combinator president—had previously warned investors not to back competitors such as Anthropic, xAI or Safe Superintelligence, and threatened to withhold confidential information from any “non‑passive” investors who did (Business Insider). Altman later denied that investors would be barred from future rounds, but he did acknowledge that passive‑only stakes would be the only ones allowed without losing access to OpenAI’s private data (Business Insider).

The dual‑investment trend also reflects broader market dynamics. As AI valuation metrics soar—Anthropic’s $30 billion raise pushed its post‑money valuation to roughly $380 billion, according to Reuters—large institutional capital is increasingly treating AI startups as a single asset class rather than discrete competitive entities. Wired’s recent piece on “Loyalty Is Dead in Silicon Valley” underscores that founders and investors alike now view opportunities through a price‑driven lens, with “acqui‑hires” and mega‑fundraises blurring the lines of allegiance (Wired). In this environment, hedge funds and asset managers are less constrained by the traditional VC ethos; their primary mandate remains maximizing returns across a diversified portfolio, even if that means holding stakes in direct competitors.

Microsoft’s parallel hedging strategy illustrates how the largest corporate backers are also diversifying. While Microsoft remains OpenAI’s primary cloud partner and holds a sizable equity position, it has quietly deepened ties with Nvidia and other AI infrastructure providers to safeguard its supply chain (TechCrunch). Nvidia, a key hardware supplier to both OpenAI and Anthropic, similarly benefits from the dual‑investment landscape, reinforcing the notion that the AI ecosystem is increasingly interwoven rather than siloed.

For OpenAI, the overlapping investor base could complicate future governance. Venture firms that sit on both companies’ boards may face conflicting fiduciary duties, especially as the two firms vie for enterprise contracts, talent, and regulatory influence. The $20 million political donation Anthropic announced to a U.S. AI‑regulation advocacy group (Reuters) adds another layer of strategic positioning that investors must monitor. If investors push for coordinated policy stances, the competitive tension between OpenAI and Anthropic may be muted, but it could also dilute each firm’s ability to differentiate its technology roadmap.

Ultimately, the convergence of capital behind both AI powerhouses signals a shift from loyalty‑based investing to a portfolio‑centric approach. As OpenAI pursues its massive $100 billion round, it will need to navigate a landscape where its own backers are equally invested in its chief rival, potentially reshaping board dynamics, information sharing protocols, and the competitive calculus of the next generation of generative AI.