Harvey’s U.S. Open sponsorship is part of a broader sports push designed to court executives, corporate lawyers and prospective clients. Julian Finney/Getty Images

Harvey, the A.I. startup set out to automate the legal industry, is courting the sports world to reach new customers. The OpenAI-backed company, which just closed a $550 million funding round this week, is the first official “legal assistant” to the U.S. Open, securing signage at Arthur Ashe Stadium and select other courts, plus virtual on-court placement in international broadcasts. The tournament runs through this Sunday.

“The U.S. Open’s fan base, global reach and remarkable brand make them the perfect partner,” Harvey CEO Winston Weinberg said when announcing the partnership in March.

Legal software may seem an unlikely sell to tennis fans. But Harvey sees a business audience in the crowd, with potential customers watching from the stands and at home.

“CEOs, boards, lawyers and adjacent teams all attend and tune in to the tournament,” Mali Robertson, Harvey’s director of brand partnerships, told Observer in an email. She described the U.S. Open as the company’s first major sports partnership.

Companies that sell to other businesses love the chance to meet prospective customers and other business leaders in person, said T. Bettina Cornwell, a University of Oregon marketing professor who studies corporate sponsorships.

“If there are 10 or 20 other business leaders they might meet during one event, that holds so much more potential than cold calling for interest,” Cornwell told Observer. Other sponsors can become prospective customers, she said, while hospitality gives companies a way to thank existing clients and reward employees.

“Building Harvey’s brand not just with lawyers who are tennis fans but also with a broader audience becomes imperative” as the company grows, Robertson said.

The U.S. Open’s other sponsors include Oura, American Express, J.P. Morgan, IBM, Deloitte, Rolex and Emirates, among others.

Harvey looks beyond Big Law

Weinberg knows the legal market from the inside. In 2022, he was a junior associate at O’Melveny & Myers when he began testing OpenAI’s models on legal questions with his roommate, Gabe Pereyra, then a researcher at Meta. The two co-founded Harvey, which received its first check from the OpenAI Startup Fund.

Investors have kept the money flowing. In March, Harvey raised $200 million at an $11 billion valuation in a round co-led by GIC and Sequoia. This week’s financing, co-led by Diffusion and Lightspeed Venture Partners, brings its total funding to more than $1.5 billion. Harvey is now valued at $15.5 billion.

Harvey says its software is currently used by more than 200,000 lawyers at more than 2,400 organizations, up from more than 100,000 lawyers at 1,300 organizations in March. The customer list includes law firms such as Paul, Weiss and A&O Shearman, PwC UK and private equity giant KKR.

Despite being a B2B company, Harvey’s marketing push has heavily focused on reaching a mass audience. In June 2025, it launched a campaign on New York streets and in the subway, challenging lawyers with the line “you didn’t go to law school to push papers.” In February this year, Harvey partnered with Gabriel Macht, the Suits star whose fictional legal shark, Harvey Specter, inspired the company’s name. The partnership coincided with the launch of Harvey’s Instagram account.

Its sports deals have also tracked its geographic ambitions. A March partnership with the Dallas Mavericks came as Harvey prepared to open a Dallas office in April. Later in March, it struck a deal with Paris Saint-Germain ahead of a planned office opening in the French capital. In addition to stadium branding and customer experiences, the agreement included a commitment by the soccer club to use Harvey in its legal department.

Other A.I. and SaaS companies are also turning to sports to bolster their image. IBM’s relationship with the United States Tennis Association dates back to 1992. Today, its technology powers match analysis and an A.I. chatbot on the U.S. Open’s website and app.

In February, Anthropic partnered with the Atlassian Williams F1 Team, putting Claude branding on cars and team gear and applying the A.I. assistant to race strategy, car development and operations. That month, Anthropic also ran Super Bowl commercials promoting Claude as an ad-free alternative after rival OpenAI began inserting ads for some ChatGPT users.