OpenAI is taking an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, whose parent company is one of the AI giant’s major investors, Thrive Capital.
Thrive Holdings operates like a private equity firm for AI, rolling up companies that it believes could benefit from the tech in sectors like accounting and IT services.
Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal, but it will involve OpenAI embedding engineering, research, and product teams within Thrive’s companies to accelerate AI adoption and boost efficiency, the company says. If those companies succeed, OpenAI’s stake will grow, and it will get compensated for its services, according to reporting from CNBC.
The partnership follows a pattern of circular dealmaking for the $500 billion AI giant, which also recently took stakes in infrastructure partners like Advanced Micro Devices and CoreWeave. Analysts will be watching to see if Thrive-owned firms actually succeed in building long-term profitable businesses using OpenAI’s tech, or if the result is really just pumped-up valuations based on speculative market potential.
