Happy Friday! If I think back to my days as a college undergraduate, I struggle to think of any single class I took that definitely prepared me for the career I have today, perhaps because I took a more circuitous route to journalism by way of Mainland China and Japan. In this morning’s newsletter, I look at one of the newest business classes at the University of Michigan that seeks to prepare undergraduates for a private-equity career by giving them hands-on investment experience vetting actual deals. Meanwhile, our Newswires colleague Katherine Hamilton reports on a new $30 billion growth investment in Anthropic that values the AI technology developer at a whopping $380 billion.

One final note, in observance of the Presidents Day holiday, we aren't publishing a daily newsletter Monday, but we will be back Tuesday with that much more news.

Enjoy the long weekend! Now onto the news ...

Students in the University of Michigan’s new undergraduate private-equity course received an unusual addition to the usual case studies and guest lecturers: real money to invest in actual deals, Laura Kreutzer writes for WSJ Pro. Students that took the new class got first-hand experience vetting co-investments, by tapping money in a unique charitable fund supported by university alumni and friends.

SoftBank Group's appetite for OpenAI is getting costly, the Journal reports. The investment giant’s answer: more borrowing and more selling. The Tokyo-based firm run by billionaire Masayoshi Son took on an additional $27 billion in debt in the past three months of the year, including debt at its subsidiaries. It also sold over $3.5 billion in shares of T-Mobile, on top of the previously announced $5.8 billion it raised by selling a stake in Nvidia.

Coatue Management and GIC led a $30 billion growth investment in artificial intelligence technology developer Anthropic at an enterprise value of $380 billion, Katherine Hamilton reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Other backers joining the transaction included Iconiq Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group and MGX Fund Management. The San Francisco-based company is developing the Claude agentic AI models and said its revenue run rate has risen to $14 billion from about $1 billion roughly a year ago.

Infrastructure-focused I Squared Capital and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are buying Peruvian power producer Inkia Energy, in a deal that values the company at $3.4 billion, including debt, Lauren Thomas reports for the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. Miami-based I Squared has been an investor in Inkia since 2017 but is increasing its stake to 50% through a continuation fund.

Carlyle Group's tentative deal to acquire international assets of Russia's Lukoil faces a new threat, Reuters reports, as Midad Energy has signed a term sheet to acquire sanctioned components of the business, according to people familiar with the matter. Midad is backed by Saudi Arabia. The company's Lukoil deal is subject to regulatory approvals, including in the U.S.

Cinven in London is investing in Regenity Biosciences, joining existing backer Linden Capital Partners as a stakeholder in the company, which develops and manufactures biomaterials that support natural healing processes. The New Jersey company’s products are used in clinical areas that include dental care, orthopedics, spinal care, neurosurgery, advanced wound care, sports medicine and nerve repair. Chicago-based Linden initially backed the company in 2019, according to the firm’s website.

Healthcare-focused Ampersand Capital Partners has acquired Purna Pharmaceuticals, which offers development and manufacturing services of liquid and semi-solid dosage forms for customers in the pharmaceutical industry.

Lower midmarket-focused Riverside Co. has backed Western Botanicals, a Spanish Fork, Utah-based contract development and manufacturing organization focused on vitamins, minerals and supplements. Riverside invested through its capital appreciation strategy, which typically targets companies with $10 million to $35 million in adjusted pre-tax earnings.

Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.

Platinum Equity is selling waste management company Urbaser in Spain to Blackstone and EQT AB in a deal valued at about $6.6 billion. The two buyers would each hold half the Madrid-based company's equity under the deal, which faces customary regulatory reviews. Urbaser has about 50,000 employees serving over 60 million people worldwide. Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Platinum acquired the business in October 2021 at an enterprise value of about $4.2 billion.

RedBird IMI's sale of Telegraph Media Group to rival newspaper company Daily Mail and General Trust faces new regulatory hurdles in London after British Culture Minister Lisa Nandy disclosed plans to intervene. A filing from her department cites a concern over "a sufficient plurality of views in news media" and the need to ensure that there is "a sufficient plurality of persons with control of the media enterprises" in the U.K. RedBird IMI's £500 deal with the Daily Mail, or more than $681.1 million, came after foreign ownership concerns blocked an earlier arrangement.

NewSpring Capital and Spring Capital Partners are selling building products company Boston Valley Terra Cotta to fellow private investor RAF Equity. Boston Valley manufactures custom architectural terra-cotta façade products. NewSpring and Spring initially backed the company in 2021.

General Atlantic is selling its 20% stake in data and analytics provider ISS Stoxx to Deutsche Börse Group, giving the German exchange operator full ownership of ISS. General Atlantic first backed the business in 2019, according to the New York firm's website.

Fundraising for healthcare venture capitalists these days is a slog—but some are overcoming a tough market to fill new investment pools, WSJ Pro's Brian Gormley writes. U.S. healthcare VCs raked in capital during the pandemic, amassing $41 billion at the peak in 2021, which shrivelled to about $7 billion last year, according to Silicon Valley Bank. Three venture firms tell how they raised money for health pools in a dismal environment.

Credit-focused Brigade Capital Management has wrapped up its debut private credit vehicle, Brigade Private Credit Solutions Fund, with over $1 billion of investable capital. The New York firm manages about $31 billion overall, investing in publicly traded and private credit assets.

Lower midmarket firm Union Capital Associates has closed Union Capital Equity Partners IV at the fund’s $450 million upper limit. The final tally was larger than the $309 million the firm raised for a predecessor fund in 2022. Monument Group placed both funds.

Dynamic Core Capital Partners, which has rebranded from its previous name Dubin Clark, has closed its DC Small Business Fund with $240 million. The fund is structured as a small business investment company and has already backed three main deals.

The asset-management arm of insurer Manulife Financial in Toronto has set up a global credit fund for individual investors, with the vehicle overseen by Canada-based Mawer Investment Management in Calgary, Alberta.

Rotunda Capital Partners has added Kristalee Overdahl and Bryan Bourne as operating vice presidents. Overdahl was previously a consultant on environmental, social and corporate governance issues working with Rotunda companies. Bourne was previously with Rotunda-backed American Equipment Holdings.

MiddleGround Capital has promoted Dinesh Vasandani to managing director. Vasandani joined the midmarket firm in 2023.

Asset manager Nuveen is buying U.K. peer Schroders for $13.5 billion, bolstering its business in Europe with a storied London investment house that dates back more than two centuries, the Journal reports. The deal is the latest between active money managers trying to keep up with passive investment giants like BlackRock and Vanguard as well as private-market specialists. Nuveen, part of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, said Thursday the combined group would oversee assets of nearly $2.5 trillion.

European buyout firm CVC Capital Partners ended last year with about €148.3 billion in fee-paying assets, or roughly $176.1 billion, after gross inflows of about €9 billion in the fourth quarter, as credit, infrastructure and secondaries strategies swelled to comprise over half the Amsterdam-listed firm's total. But overall fee-paying assets were little changed from a year earlier. Realizations last year climbed 67% from 2024 to €21.9 billion, with gross returns of 3.2 times invested capital. Exits from private-equity investments surged 77% to about €19.5 billion for the year compared with 2024. The firm expects to begin raising its private equity Fund X at the start of next year.

Technology investor Seligman Investments, part of Columbia Threadneedle, has set up a venture capital arm with around $500 million initially. The firm has already made four deals out of the strategy, which has been investing since November.

Franklin Templeton, which oversees assets of about $1.7 trillion, has expanded its private-equity secondaries strategy to over $3.5 billion in about a year of operations. The strategy is sub-advised by Lexington Partners.

Asset manager Affiliated Managers Group in West Palm Beach, Fla., is expanding its investment in liquid alternatives specialist Garda Capital Partners, which the New York-listed firm has backed since 2019. Garda manages over $12 billion and AMG remains a minority shareholder.

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Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Isaac Taylor; Chitra Vemuri.