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As a new breed of Big Tech pushes deeper into health care, AI-focused health tech startups are focusing on specialty data to create a moat.

The big picture: LLM developers like Anthropic and OpenAI have yet to create AI verticals in the specialty care categories that players like OpenEvidence and Doximity have homed in on.

Case(s) in point: OpenEvidence, an AI platform for doctors, doubled its valuation to $12 billion after closing a $250 million Series D funding round, it said Wednesday.

Hippocratic AI, a health-focused LLM worth $3.5 billion as of November 2025, this month acquired Grove AI, which makes AI agents for pharma.

Iterative Health, a gastrointestinal-focused clinical research startup focused on boosting patient outcomes, last June raised a $150 million Series B.

Threat level: OpenAI and Anthropic have focused on consumer health queries and health system-focused workflow tools.

More game-changing health tools require deep specialization — not just for clinicians but also for patients, McKinsey senior partner Shubham Singhal tells Axios Pro.

Big AI players' inroads in health care will likely "stop at a point," he says, because people with serious diseases from cancer to Crohn's to coronary artery disease will desire a level of specialization that large, more generalist LLM developers simply cannot provide.

Between the lines: When it comes to clinicians and patients, smaller health care startups have an edge in the depth and specificity of their data, says Breyer Capital head of health care Morgan Cheatham.

"In gastrointestinal, cardiology, oncology ... there are companies that have deep datasets that took a long time to build, annotate, and procure that I think will have a moat at the end of the day," he tells Axios Pro.

Those companies "are applying AI to take what we do in medicine today, which is provide very subjective assessments of a patient's status, and turn that into something that's computational and standardized," Cheatham adds.

Yes, but: Between OpenAI's $100 million acquisition of consumer health data startup Torch and Anthropic's new Claude for Healthcare, it's clear both companies have growing aspirations in the sector. 

Our thought bubble: LLM giants could acquire their way into specialty data sources, but they would have to gobble up several companies and create multiple, potentially separate business lines to support those efforts. 

The other side: OpenAI and Anthropic still maintain an edge in uptake, with millions of consumers and clinicians already using their tools.

The bottom line: "The best moat in health care is distribution," says Cheatham.

Investors and analysts aren't worried about OpenAI in health care — yet

A cadre of AI-focused health tech startups are focusing on specialty data to create a moat.

Illustration of a robot doctor looking at a holographic chart of vitals and a woman's face.

As a new breed of Big Tech <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="pushes deeper" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2026/01/15/openai-anthropic-big-tech-consumer-health-care-llm" data-vars-content-id="19bd9ef3-956f-4444-8f08-df89e24ebcd6" data-vars-headline="Investors and analysts aren&#x27;t worried about OpenAI in health care — yet" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/pro/health-tech-deals/2026/01/15/openai-anthropic-big-tech-consumer-health-care-llm" target="_self">pushes deeper</a> into health care, AI-focused health tech startups are focusing on specialty data to create a moat.The big picture: LLM developers like Anthropic and OpenAI have yet to create AI verticals in the specialty care categories that players like OpenEvidence and Doximity have homed in on.

Investors and analysts aren't worried about OpenAI in health care — yet

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