New Anthropic-, Blackstone-backed AI services firm acquires Fractional AI

The recently announced artificial intelligence-native enterprise services firm backed by Anthropic PBC, Blackstone Inc. and Hellman & Friedman LLC has acquired Fractional AI Inc., a San Francisco-based applied AI services company that will form the operational centerpiece of the new venture.

Today’s deal hands the still-unnamed services firm a ready-made delivery team built specifically to embed generative AI into enterprise workflows. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The venture itself was unveiled on May 4, when Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. committed a combined $1.5 billion to build a services company focused on helping mid-sized businesses deploy Claude across their core operations.

Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman are each putting in $300 million, with Goldman Sachs contributing $150 million as a founding investor. Additional backers include General Atlantic Service Co. LP, Leonard Green & Partners, Apollo Global Management Inc., GIC Pte. Ltd. and Sequoia Capital.

Fractional AI was founded in 2024 by Chris Taylor, Eddie Siegel and Travis May, three operators who previously worked together at data connectivity company LiveRamp Holdings Inc. The company has built a reputation as a destination for applied AI engineers and an end-to-end implementation partner for companies trying to move generative AI from pilot to production. Its engineering team will work alongside Anthropic’s Applied AI organization.

The pitch differentiates the new entity from traditional consulting firms. Rather than producing slide decks and roadmaps, the company plans to send engineers into client operations to rebuild systems around what frontier models can now do. Blackstone and its co-investors expect to use their own portfolio companies, spanning healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, retail and real estate, as the initial customer base before expanding more broadly into the midmarket.

“Bringing frontier AI into a business takes more than a great model,” Garvan Doyle, a leader in Anthropic’s Applied AI organization, said in a statement. “It takes the engineering judgment to rebuild real systems around what’s now possible, and Fractional has assembled a team with exactly that capability.”

Taylor, Fractional AI’s chief executive and Siegel, the chief technology officer, said that they see a “multitrillion-dollar gap” between how businesses operate today and what is now possible with frontier models. “Our team of AI engineers and former founders thrives on building transformative end-to-end solutions,” they said.

Rodney Zemmel, global head of the operating team at Blackstone, said the private equity firm had worked with Fractional AI across its portfolio before the deal. “We have built a strong relationship with Fractional AI through their work across the Blackstone portfolio and it’s clear they are a magnet for elite, applied AI engineers,” he said.

The deal comes as Anthropic continues to push deeper into enterprise distribution.

KPMG International Ltd. signed a global alliance with Anthropic on May 19, embedding Claude across its 276,000-person workforce and being named Anthropic’s preferred partner for private equity, a direct adjacency to the Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and Apollo backers of the new services firm. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP expanded its own Anthropic alliance earlier in May with a commitment to train 30,000 staff on Claude, and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. struck a similar deal in October covering more than 470,000 staff.

Photo: Fractional AI