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Google is not building a consultancy. It is writing a licensing agreement. That may be the smarter play
While OpenAI and Anthropic built multi-billion dollar AI consulting firms, Google is offering Blackstone and KKR bulk Gemini licensing and letting existing consultants handle deployment.
What: Google is negotiating with Blackstone, KKR, and EQT to give all their portfolio companies Gemini access under single licensing agreements. OpenAI's $10 billion Deployment Company (TPG-led, 19 investors, 17.5% guaranteed annual return) and Anthropic's $1.5 billion Blackstone JV both embed engineers onsite like Palantir's FDE model. Google has already committed $750 million to a partner fund financing Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, and NTT DATA to handle Gemini deployments.
Why it matters: This reveals competing theories about how enterprise AI scales: OpenAI and Anthropic believe the bottleneck is implementation (hence forward-deployed engineers), while Google believes it's procurement (hence platform licensing through existing consulting channels). Platform approaches historically win if the product is good enough to survive without hand-holding.
Deep dive
- Google is negotiating omnibus licensing deals with Blackstone, KKR, and EQT to give all their portfolio companies Gemini model access under single commercial agreements, trading consulting revenue for distribution speed
- OpenAI's $10 billion Deployment Company launched Sunday with TPG and 19 investors (including Brookfield, Advent, Bain Capital), guaranteeing 17.5% annual returns over five years with OpenAI committing up to $1.5 billion and retaining strategic control via super-voting shares
- Anthropic announced a $1.5 billion enterprise services firm the same day with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, Goldman Sachs (each ~$300M), plus General Atlantic, Leonard Green, Apollo, GIC, and Sequoia
- Both OpenAI and Anthropic are using Palantir's forward-deployed-engineer model, embedding teams directly inside client organizations to redesign workflows across healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, and financial services
- Google already committed $750 million to a partner fund financing AI deployments through Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, and NTT DATA, and is now layering omnibus licensing on top of this existing consulting channel
- The strategic split: OpenAI and Anthropic bet the bottleneck is implementation (needs specialist engineers), Google bets it's procurement (needs platform access), with Google ceding the implementation relationship to third-party consultants
- The opportunity is massive: Blackstone and KKR manage combined assets exceeding $2 trillion across thousands of portfolio companies, EQT manages ~€130 billion
- Google negotiates from strength: Q1 2026 earnings beat across all divisions, market cap surged past $4.6 trillion, Google Cloud crossed $20 billion quarterly revenue (up 63%), cloud backlog nearly doubled to $460 billion, 750 million Gemini users
- Blackstone appears on both sides, as both a founding investor in Anthropic's $1.5 billion JV and a potential Google licensing customer, positioning itself as a distribution channel for all AI labs
- The risk trade-offs: OpenAI must generate substantial recurring revenue quickly or face investor pressure, Anthropic ties to specific sponsors' portfolios, Google never develops deep enterprise workflow understanding that competitors gain through embedded engineers
- Platform approaches historically win in enterprise technology if the product is good enough to survive without hand-holding, and whether Gemini meets that threshold across diverse industries is what Google's licensing model is testing
Decoder
- Forward-deployed engineer (FDE): Engineering model pioneered by Palantir where engineers work onsite with customers to build custom solutions integrated into their specific workflows, rather than selling standardized products
- Omnibus licensing: A single commercial agreement that gives access rights to an entire portfolio of companies under one private equity firm, rather than negotiating individual contracts with each company
Original article
Google is betting that enterprise AI is a platform problem, not a services problem. It is in talks with Blackstone, KKR, and EQT to give their portfolio companies access to Gemini models through omnibus licensing agreements. The discussions are not exclusive, and no deals have been finalized. Google is offering private equity firms a commercial wrapper that gives their entire portfolio access to Gemini, then relying on the consulting ecosystem it has already financed to handle implementation. The approach trades consulting revenue for distribution speed.
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