OpenAI and Anthropic may use investor funds to settle AI lawsuits
OpenAI and Anthropic are exploring the use of investor capital and limited insurance cover to resolve mounting legal claims tied to their AI services, according to people familiar with internal discussions. Both companies face a wave of copyright and related lawsuits that could translate into substantial payouts.
The traditional insurance market is not yet equipped to fully absorb these emerging risks. Policies that can address systemic, aggregated claims against generative‑AI providers remain scarce, and available limits sit well below potential exposure. OpenAI has engaged a major insurance broker to arrange bespoke coverage for “new AI risks,” but the capacity on offer, people say, still falls far short of the sums at stake.
Against that backdrop, the company is studying self‑insurance options, ranging from reserves funded with investor money to the creation of a captive (a wholly owned insurance subsidiary).
Anthropic, according to Reuters, has already used corporate funds to resolve matters linked to training data sourced from protected content. Last month, a California court gave preliminary approval to a $1.5 billion settlement in a copyright class action. This level of compensation may set a benchmark for future lawsuits against Anthropic and its competitors.
Revenue and investment in generative AI continue to expand, but legal liabilities are scaling even faster. For developers, that implies a higher cost of capital and the need to pre‑build financial and legal “shock absorbers.”
For insurers, it’s a prompt to develop new products, model large-scale risk scenarios, and rethink underwriting for technologies that can fail for millions of users at once.
Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic has publicly detailed the internal options under review. Still, a hybrid playbook that combines limited third‑party cover paired with investor‑backed reserves and targeted settlements appears to be the industry’s short-term standard.
