Good morning! In the era of artificial intelligence, we start the week with news that Anthropic is seeking $30 billion in fresh capital and intensifying an already high concentration of venture investments among a few, large AI companies, the Journal’s Kate Clark reports.

Also, the initial public offering of Cerebras Systems last week produced big wins for early-investing firms such as Benchmark that stuck with the semiconductor maker over the years even as it faced a few near-death experiences, WSJ Pro’s Yuliya Chernova writes.

For much, much more, please read on …

Anthropic is raising more than $30 billion through a growth investment at a $900 billion valuation as the artificial intelligence giant seeks capital ahead of its widely expected initial public offering, Kate Clark reports for the Journal, citing people familiar with the matter. The drive to add billions to the more than $220 billion already invested in the company and rival OpenAI highlights a trend where a small handful of businesses are absorbing an unprecedented share of venture investments. In the first quarter of 2026, OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as xAI, Waymo and Databricks, accounted for about 75% of total venture investment, according to research provider PitchBook, a level of concentration that it said had no modern precedent.

Chip company Cerebras Systems, which went public on Thursday, is a fund-returner several times over for its early venture backers, Yuliya Chernova writes for WSJ Pro. Three of the company’s largest shareholders—Benchmark, Foundation Capital and Eclipse—had first backed the company in its 2016 Series A round. The shares owned by these three early backers were worth about $8.58 billion at the offering price of $185. The principal shareholders weren’t able to sell shares in the IPO under standard lockup restrictions.

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square has taken a new stake in Microsoft, a bet that the software giant’s investments in artificial intelligence aren’t reflected in the company’s slumping share price. Ackman said in a post on X Friday that Pershing began building its Microsoft position in February, after the company’s shares declined following its earnings report.

An investment arm of Korean banking and financial services provider JB Financial Group led a 95 billion won, or roughly $63.7 million, growth investment in WIRobotics. Others joining JB Investment included InterVest, Hana Ventures and Smilegate Investment. The company is developing wearable and humanoid robotic systems.

Technology investor Prosus led a $240 million growth investment in Indian daily-commuting taxi app developer Rapido, joined by others including WestBridge Capital and Accel. The deal valued the company legally named Roppen Transportation Services at about $3 billion. Rapido's app connects consumers with cars and bikes for hire.

Blackstone and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice are among the private-equity firms in the early stages of exploring bids for listed Unilever spinoff Magnum Ice Cream, Aimee Look writes for Dow Jones Newswires, citing a Reuters report. The news service cited unnamed sources in a report that prompted a gain of as much as 13% in the company's New York-listed shares Friday.

Technology investor TA Associates in Boston has walked away from a potential bid for London-listed Advanced Medical Solutions Group, a regulatory filing shows. TA had confirmed in April that it was in discussions with the developer of surgical products including tissue adhesives, sutures and internal sealants, without disclosing a possible price. The company's shares fell 3.5% Friday to close at 247 pence, giving it a market capitalization of about £542.4 million, or roughly $726.9 million.

A buyout group that includes Oakley Capital and Giacom has been named as one of the potential bidders to acquire London-listed  telecommunications services provider Gamma Communications, along with Epiris, according to a regulatory filing Friday. Providence Equity Partners was identified earlier last week as in preliminary acquisition talks. Gamma shares gained almost 8.2% Friday to close at £10.09, giving the company market value of about £913.3 million, or $1.22 billion.

Midmarket investor Kinderhook Industries has acquired and taken private home health and hospice care provider Enhabit for about $700 million, paying Enhabit shareholders $13.80 a share. The deal valued the Dallas-based company at around $1.1 billion. Enhabit operates from 249 home health and 117 hospice locations across 34 states.

Growth investor One Peak Partners has led a $120 million investment in blockchain analytics business Elliptic in a transaction that values the company at around $670 million. Other investors that backed the deal include Nasdaq Ventures, Deutsche Bank and British Business Bank.

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

Tiger Infrastructure Partners has exited its investment in International Aerospace Coatings with the company’s sale to private markets firm H.I.G. Capital. Tiger initially backed the aviation services provider in 2022 through its Tiger Infrastructure Partners Fund III, which closed with $1.25 billion that same year.

Swedish buyout group EQT AB has sold its remaining stake in Nordic mortgage financing company Enity for the equivalent of $82.4 million, with about $64.9 million of that going to its seventh flagship fund. EQT and affiliate Butterfly HoldCo sold 11,818,670 Enity shares in the transaction. Stockholm-based EQT first backed the business in 2017, according to the firm's website.

A private-equity firm founded by former Ardian executives is preparing to close one of the secondary market's largest ever first-time funds, Sebastian McCarthy reports for sister publication Private Equity News in London, citing people familiar with the matter. Clipway, started in 2023 by Vincent Gombault, Ingmar Vallano and Benoît Verbrugghe, has surpassed its $3 billion target and is on course to hit its $4 billion hard cap this summer, the people said. Backers of the firm include growth equity investor General Atlantic and Paris-based asset manager Carmignac.

Lightrock, a private-equity firm that traces its roots to LGT Group, has raised $500 million for a new fund focused on investments that advance United Nations’ sustainable development goals. The firm will invest Accelerate7 in growth-stage companies across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia, with typical initial investments ranging from $10 million to $50 million each. The strategy has already backed four deals: rooftop solar company SolarSquare; off-grid solar energy business Sun King; electric vehicle manufacturer Euler Motors, and clean cookstove provider ATEC Global.

Buyout firm TPG has collected about $925 million so far for its impact-focused Rise Fund IV, a securities filing shows. Chief Executive Jon Winkelried said the amount had moved the fund "toward a rolling first close," during the firm's May 1 earnings call with analysts. Among investors in the fund, the Washington State Investment Board committed up to $200 million in June 2025, according to the WSJ Pro Private Equity LP Commitments database. TPG closed the third fund in the series with about $2.7 billion in November 2023, according to law firm Cleary Gottlieb, which counseled the firm on that fund.

Harvard University's nearly $57 billion endowment is about to lose its guiding chief executive as N.P. "Narv" Narvekar has told the endowment's board he plans to retire from running Harvard Management Co., the Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The nation's richest private school brought Narvekar on in 2016 to turn it around. In the last three years, Harvard earned an annualized return of 8.1%, topping Ivy League rivals Yale and Princeton and tying for fourth among a group of 12 top schools, according to financial technology company Markov Processes International.

Thousands of individuals have invested in private companies such as SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI, using online platforms meant to bring the hottest opportunities to the masses, the Journal reports. But Anthropic sparked widespread panic last week by suggesting some of the investments could be worthless. The artificial-intelligence company updated a post on its website from February that had warned investors it won't recognize sales of Anthropic stock that haven't been approved by its board and listed several "unauthorized firms" that facilitated such sales.

Federal prosecutors in New York are probing valuation practices at one of giant asset manager BlackRock's listed business development companies, BlackRock TCP Capital, , the Journal reported late Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. A BlackRock spokesman declined to comment on an earlier report of the probe by Bloomberg News. The process by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan has included bringing in executives for questioning, Bloomberg said. The BDC reported net assets of $565.1 million at the end of March  after a sharp write-down of its loan portfolio in January. Shares of the BDC fell about 3% in Nasdaq trading Friday to close at $4.15 each.

The average company backed by private equity sold at a discount to its valuation last year, research provider PitchBook reported, citing data from the asset management arm of Goldman Sachs, which examined a $150 billion collection of businesses owned by its external investing group. Historically, buyout shops sold their holdings for premiums over their holding value ranging from 29% in the 2020s to 8% in more recent years, the research showed.

The booming secondary market for private equity-fund stakes is becoming increasingly concentrated, Luis Garcia reports for Dow Jones Newswires, citing Capital Dynamics, a secondary fund manager. The value of secondary transactions worldwide totaled $226 billion last year, up 41% from 2024, with the market's 10 largest investors accounting for half of last year's total, the firm said.

Canadian pension investor Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, or La Caisse, and energy infrastructure company Grupo Energía Bogotá are setting up a 50-50 joint venture to manage and develop power transmission systems in Brazil. The new enterprise, under the name Verene Energia, will manage over 9,000 kilometers of transmission lines and have more than 400 employees.

Europe’s systemic risk overseer is considering an inquiry into private-credit investing, with an eye toward any risks those loans may pose to the European Union’s financial system, Bill Alpert writes for sister publication Barron's. Individual investors have crowded the exits of funds that lend to companies acquired through buyouts, and market overseers in the U.S. and the U.K. say they are examining that half trillion dollar piece of the private-credit industry.

Canadian private markets firm Onex’s private-equity investments generated net gains of $32 million, or a 1% return, during the first quarter of 2026, down from roughly $96 million, or 2% return, in the year-ago period, according to the firm’s latest earnings results. During the quarter, the firm completed a $1.6 billion multi-asset continuation fund that generated $317 million in proceeds, roughly half of which the firm received in March. Onex will receive the remainder of the proceeds in March 2027, the firm said in an earnings report. However, Onex also noted that since the close of the quarter, its private-equity unit announced the sale of Emerald Holding, which it expects to generate proceeds of $230 million when the deal closes in the second half of the year.

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