OpenAI, Google, Anthropic race to deploy enterprise AI with dedicated engineering armies

On Monday, OpenAI announced the formation of the OpenAI Deployment Company, a new venture with more than $4 billion in initial investment to help organizations deploy AI systems. The company will acquire Tomoro, an AI consulting firm with 150 engineers and deployment specialists, bringing clients like Mattel, Red Bull, Tesco and Virgin Atlantic. The unit will be majority owned and controlled by OpenAI. The move comes as rival Anthropic enjoys strong enterprise success with its Claude models, and signals that the next phase of AI is about large-scale business integration, not just consumer chatbots.

Industry-wide, the trend is clear: Google Cloud will hire hundreds of forward deployed engineers to help customers use its business AI products, as announced by CEO Thomas Kurian. Anthropic last week created a joint venture with private equity firms to sell AI to their portfolio companies. This mirrors the 1970s mainframe era, as argued in a recent analysis: AI agents are replacements, not copilots. They automate call centers, accounting, and other workflows. The decision to deploy sits with executives, not employees. The goal isn't making workers more productive—it's improving bottom lines, just like ERP software did decades ago.