Good Tuesday morning. 

A handful of private-equity firms are backing Anthropic's $1.5 billion joint venture, and the Journal has the financial details. Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman are writing the biggest checks, but some half-dozen other investors are chipping in as well.

The venture-capital arm of hedge fund Two Sigma Investments has spun out and is raising a new fund as an independent firm, Yuliya Chernova reports for WSJ Pro.

Blue Owl-backed Navigator Global Investments is acquiring interests in alternative-asset managers from Stable Asset Management, Stuart Condie reports for WSJ Pro.

Now onto the news...

Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman are both expected to pony up roughly $300 million alongside artificial intelligence technology developer Anthropic, while Goldman Sachs is chipping in around $150 million for an effort to sell AI tools to private-equity backed companies, the Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Anthropic, Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman are anchoring the deal, while General Atlantic and other firms are also involved, with commitments expected to total about $1.5 billion.

Hedge fund Two Sigma Investments in New York has spun out its venture investing arm as a separate firm called Deviation Capital, WSJ Pro's Yuliya Chernova reports. Deviation manages more than $2 billion in assets that were previously under Two Sigma Ventures and is raising its next fund with a target of $300 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. The target is lower than the $326 million the team raised for its prior pool in 2022.

Navigator Global Investments is buying a collection of minority net revenue-share interests in alternative asset managers held by Stable Asset Management for $195 million, Stuart Condie reports for WSJ Pro. But Stable has also agreed to continue managing the holdings through a long-term strategic partnership with Sydney-listed Navigator. Blue Owl Capital-backed Navigator is paying an implied multiple of about 7.6 times distributions from the holdings last year, and Stable is also getting a 9.6% equity interest in Navigator, reducing New York-based Blue Owl's stake to about 37%.

Private-equity backed Long Lake Management is acquiring American Express Global Business Travel for $9.50 a share, in an all-cash deal that values the business, which trades as Global Business Travel Group, at about $6.3 billion, Connor Hart writes for the Journal. The purchase price represents a roughly 60% premium to the company’s closing price on Friday. Stockholders including American Express, Expedia Group, the Qatar Investment Authority and BlackRock—collectively representing about 69% of outstanding shares—support the transaction, according to Long Lake. Formed in 2023, Long Lake is backed by an investor group that includes General Catalyst and Alpha Wave.

Tiger Global Management co-led a $950 million growth investment in agentic artificial-intelligence developer Sierra Technologies, joined by the venture investing arm of Alphabet's Google search engine. The deal values the San Francisco-based user-experience specialist at over $15 billion. In February, Sierra said it was entering this year with over $150 million in annual recurring revenue after just two years of operations.

Carlyle Group’s global credit strategy led a $460 million financing to support the refinancing of existing debt facilities of Internet-of-Things technology and services provider Orbcomm, as well as support the company’s continued growth. Orbcomm is backed by private investment firm GI Partners, which acquired the company in 2021 in a deal that valued Orbcomm at about $1.1 billion, including net debt.

OrbiMed led a $165 million growth investment in Swiss clinical-stage biotechnology company Windward Bio, joined by RA Capital Management and existing backers of the startup. Windward is developing therapeutics for serious immunological conditions, including respiratory and dermatological diseases.

Growth investor Peter Thiel led a $140 million commitment to renewable energy and ocean technology company Panthalassa, joined by his Founders Fund and other returning backers including Gigascale Capital and Lowercarbon Capital. The company is developing ocean-going artificial intelligence computing nodes powered by the energy in waves.

Oaktree Capital Management is backing Spectrum Brands Holdings with a $127 million investment as the Middleton, Wis., company works to separate its home and personal care business from the rest of its operations, Robb M. Stewart reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The deal includes $67 million of convertible preferred equity and $60 million in a first lien term loan tied to the HPC business. The deal will give Oaktree a 27% equity stake in the operation. Spectrum's consumer goods company's brands range from Remington and George Foreman to Black Flag insecticides.

Buyout firm KKR & Co. led a $125 million growth investment in Reserv, whose operations include property and casualty insurance claims administration and data analytics, joined by existing investors including Bain Capital. New York-based Reserv has annual recurring revenue of around $100 million and employs more than 500 claims adjusters.

Sagard Healthcare Partners has acquired a certain royalty interest from clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company MacroGenics for as much as $80 million, expanding an earlier deal with the Nasdaq-listed business. The latest deal includes a $60 million up-front payment, with the remainder tied to 2026 sales milestones of a cancer treatment developed by Rockville, Md.-based MacroGenics.

Carlyle Group is acquiring majority stakes in two healthcare-focused revenue cycle management companies to form the basis of a new artificial intelligence-driven, multi-specialty business. Knack RCM founder Rajiv Sharma and EqualizeRCM founder Nagi Rao will each reinvest a portion of the sale proceeds in exchange for stakes in the new business. Carlyle is investing in the transaction out of its Carlyle Asia Partners VI fund and its Carlyle Asia Partners Growth II fund.

Cerberus Capital Management in New York is backing data-center infrastructure services provider S+S Industries with a strategic investment, joining the founding Andrews family, which is retaining a significant stake in the Houston-based business.

Brookfield Asset Management is joining with nuclear-project developer The Nuclear Co. to form a new business specializing in deployments of Westinghouse reactor technology. The business will manage further development of two partly built reactors in Fairfield County, S.C., known as V.C. Summer Nuclear Units 2 and 3, pending reulatory approval and future investment decisions.

Finnish investment firm CapMan's infrastructure group is buying a majority interest in helicopter services company HeliAir Sweden. The company provides firefighting, utility line maintenance and defense-related services in the Nordic countries.

New Mountain Capital is increasing its ownership of investment banking and advisory firm Portage Point Partners, building on a minority stake that the $60 billion New York asset manager acquired in September 2024.

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

Sentinel Capital Partners is selling electrical components supplier NSI Industries to strategic buyer Hubbell for $3 billion in cash, or about 15.5 times the company's projected earnings this year, Nicholas G. Miller reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Huntersville, N.C.-based NSI is expected to generate revenue of about $570 million this year and New York-listed Hubbell said the deal would be accretive to its adjusted pre-tax earnings this year. New York-based Sentinel acquired NSI in 2024.

Asset manager KKR & Co. and XPV Water Partners have agreed to sell Axius Water to strategic buyer CRH. KKR’s global impact strategy and XPV Water formed the water quality treatment and nutrient removal company back in 2019. CRH said in its latest quarterly earnings report that it is buying the company for $700 million. The sale is the second exit from KKR’s global impact strategy in recent months, following its agreement in March to sell data-center cooling company CoolIT Systems to Ecolab in a deal valued at $4.75 billion.

Specialist investor SK Capital Partners has sold fragrance and flavoring ingredients manufacturer Phoenix Flavors & Fragrances to strategic acquirer Turpaz Industries for $95 million plus an up to $5 million in potential earnout. SK Capital’s ownership of Phoenix Flavors dates back to 2021 when the firm acquired Phoenix Aromas and Essential Oils and merged it with another portfolio company, chemicals distributor Tilley Co. The firm had integrated Phoenix Aroma’s flavor and fragrance distribution business into the Tilley platform but established the manufacturing business as a standalone entity, which it has sold, according to an SK Capital spokesperson.

An emergency medical company backed by KKR & Co., GMR Solutions, plans to sell more than 31.9 million shares priced from $22 to $25 each in an initial public offering that could give the business an initial market capitalization topping $5 billion, Colin Kellaher reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Also known as Global Medical Response, the Lewisville, Texas-based company was formed by KKR in 2018 when the firm acquired ground ambulance provider American Medical Response and merged it with air-ambulance provider Air Medical Group Holdings, which it bought in 2015. KKR still holds about 89% of GMR's equity.

Raven Capital's Outback Presents has sold a minority interest in its comedy business to live entertainment and sports company AEG Presents as part of Raven's value realization strategy. Credit-focused Raven initially invested in Outback Presents in 2021 as a lender and later assumed ownership through a restructuring.

Buyout firm THL Partners has agreed to sell infrastructure management software company AMI to publicly-traded Lattice Semiconductor for $1.65 billion, made up of around $1 billion cash and roughly $650 million in Lattice shares. THL took a majority stake in AMI back in 2024.

Audax Group's private-credit arm and secondaries investor Pantheon have closed on $1 billion for a continuation vehicle to back a collection of first-lien senior secured loans and related equity holdings acquired from Audax Private Debt’s Direct Lending Solutions Fund I. Pantheon led and structured the deal, while Audax continues to manage the assets involved.

Apollo Global Management has closed on about $1.9 billion for Apollo Accord Fund VII, which invests in dislocated credit markets. The strategy, for which Apollo has now raised $11.6 billion since the fund was formed in 2017, generally aims to invest at the top of companies’ capital structures during periods of market volatility, the firm said.

Blackstone expects to sell nearly 86.8 million shares at $20 each to raise almost $1.74 billion for Blackstone Digital Infrastructure Trust, a vehicle the firm has set up to invest in data-center properties leased to investment-grade hyperscale tenants. The new real-estate investment trust will back "essential digital infrastructure assets that serve as the backbone for cloud computing, artificial intelligence and the broader digital transformation driving economic growth," according to a securities registration. Since 2018, the firm has invested about $150 billion in data center assets and said it has identified around $25 billion in near-term investment opportunities in the sector.

Hamilton Lane served as the lead investor in a roughly $300 million continuation vehicle formed by MidOcean Partners to recapitalize its portfolio company Cloyes Gear and Products, extending the midmarket firm’s hold on the designer, developer, manufacturer and distributor of timing drive systems and components for the automotive aftermarket. MidOcean initially backed Cloyes in 2022 and is making an additional investment in the company as part of the continuation vehicle transaction.

Asset-backed finance specialist LibreMax Capital is offering its first interval fund tailored to individual investors, called LibreMax Asset-Backed Income Fund, that opens access to traded structured credit and ABF investments. The vehicle has collected about $285 million so far, with commitments from institutional investors. The New York-based firm aims to offer redemption windows, but can't guarantee any share repurchases will occur. In an April securities filing, LibreMax said it planned quarterly redemptions of as much as 5% of outstanding common shares, with the first repurchase window expected to open in July.

Churchill Asset Management has tapped Michael Pond and Brett Graffy as managing directors and Peter Repetto as a principal, head of research and investment insights. Pond, who is also a senior investment strategist, joins Churchill from BlackRock, where he served as lead strategist for the firm's wealth-focused private debt offerings. Graffy, who is also an investment strategist, previously was at consultant Aksia, where he worked with global institutional investors on private markets. Repetto joins from iCapital, where he developed public and private market investment views.

Hercules Capital is moving up Seth Meyer to president from chief financial officer and is bringing back Andrew Olson to succeed Meyer as CFO, Adriano Marchese reports for Dow Jones Newswires. Olson is rejoining the firm from Revelation Partners after leaving in 2017. Meyer joined the firm in 2019 as CFO, the same year Scott Bluestein was named chief executive and president. Bluestein retains the CEO and chief investment officer roles at the New York-listed credit provider.

Healthcare-focused investment firm Amulet Capital Partners has added Adam Grossman as a partner at the firm. Grossman most recently served as a partner at Deerfield Management, where he led investments in healthcare services and technology-enabled businesses.

Recently formed Tierra Adentro Growth Capital has established the Tierra Adentro Fund to invest in growth-stage businesses backed by the New Mexico State Investment Council, supporting the development of key industries, including advanced energy, aerospace and defense. The $100 million infrastructure fund will write checks from a few million dollars to $40 million. Its first deal backed geothermal energy developer Zanskar. The fund is overseen by Alok Sindher, who is also Albuquerque, N.M.-based TA Growth Capital's managing partner and chief investment officer.

Two executives who had worked together at StepStone Group have co-founded a new firm called Thirdpath to offer institutional investors customized private-markets investments through separately managed accounts. Managing Partners Brey Jones and John McGuinness worked together for nearly a decade at StepStone Group. The two have recruited other industry executives to the firm, including Managing Partner David Ren and Senior Managing Director Brent Pasternack, who will lead its alternative credit team, as well as Senior Managing Directors Serina Yu and Tim Lee to lead its buyout team.

Deals between artificial-intelligence startups and some of their private-equity backers to put their AI tools in the hands of portfolio company managers raise questions about revenue brought in by the developers of AI inference engines, former Fidelity Investments President Robert Pozen writes in an opinion piece for the Journal. He asks: Are AI companies revealing what percentage of enterprise revenue comes from subsidized channels or joint ventures with private-equity firms?

StepStone Group is forming a partnership with Morningstar to offer the private markets firm’s deal level performance and operating metrics through Morningstar’s PitchBook data platform, according to an emailed statement.

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