[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] An AI services company jointly funded by Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman has acquired San Francisco-based applied AI services firm Fractional AI, SiliconANGLE reported on May 21 local time. The acquisition price was not disclosed.

According to the report, the joint venture is backed by a total of $1.5 billion from Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and Goldman Sachs to help mid-sized companies deploy Claude in core business operations.

Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman each invested $300 million, while Goldman Sachs invested $150 million. General Atlantic, Leonard Green, Apollo, GIC and Sequoia Capital also participated.

Fractional AI was co-founded in 2024 by Chris Taylor, Eddy Siegel and Travis May, former employees of data connectivity company LiveRamp. It specialises in helping companies move generative AI from pilot programs into real operations.

To differentiate itself from traditional consulting firms, the joint venture focuses on deploying engineers on customer sites and rebuilding systems to match frontier model capabilities, rather than producing presentation materials or roadmaps.

Blackstone and co-investors plan to use portfolio companies in healthcare, manufacturing, finance, retail and real estate as early customers, then expand into the mid-sized company market. Gavan Doyle, who leads Anthropic's applied AI organisation, said, "To bring frontier AI into enterprises, a great model alone is not enough." He said, "You need engineering judgment to rebuild real systems around what has become possible, and Fractional has built a team with exactly that capability."