From 'brutal competitors' to collaborators: Investing giants are cozying up to rivals to fund AI and infrastructure

Apollo President James Zelter spoke at Monday's Milken Conference in Los Angeles. APFIS

Capital needs of AI and infrastructure are so great that Wall Street giants are fighting less.

James Zelter, Apollo's president, said it isn't as "brutal" to compete for deals.

PE giants, including Blackstone, came together to form a joint venture with AI darling Anthropic on Monday.

Everyone plays nicer on the conference stage than in the boardroom, but it was a remarkably chummy start to the Milken conference in Los Angeles on Monday.

The reason, according to those onstage, is that elbows don't have to be nearly as sharp when the investment needed to see the AI boom through is so massive.

The funding of artificial intelligence and the broader infrastructure to support the technology, including data centers, energy grid improvements, and more, has become the story of capital markets since OpenAI's…