OpenAI Takes Equity Stake in Thrive Holdings to Accelerate Enterprise AI Adoption

OpenAI's investment into Thrive Holdings is its latest circular deal | TechCrunch

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.

OpenAI takes stake in Thrive Holdings to help accelerate enterprise AI adoption

OpenAI on Monday announced it is taking an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, a company that was launched by one of its major investors, Thrive Capital, in April. The startup said it will embed engineering, research and product teams within Thrive Holdings' companies to help accelerate their AI adoption and boost cost efficiency. Thrive Holdings buys, owns and runs companies that it believes could benefit from technologies like artificial intelligence. It operates in sectors that are "core to the real economy," starting with accounting and IT services, according to its website. OpenAI, which is valued at $500 billion, did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement. "We are excited to extend our partnership with OpenAI to embed their frontier models, products, and services into sectors we believe have tremendous potential to benefit from technological innovation and adoption," Joshua Kushner, CEO and founder of Thrive Capital and Thrive Holdings, said in a statement. It's the latest example of OpenAI's circular dealmaking. In recent months, the company has taken stakes in infrastructure partners like Advanced Micro Devices and CoreWeave.

OpenAI Takes Stake in Thrive Holdings, a Buyer of Services Firms

When Thrive Capital set up a company, Thrive Holdings, this year to buy up and consolidate services providers like accounting firms, a key goal was to transform the businesses by imbuing them with artificial intelligence. Now one of Thrive Holdings' main partners, OpenAI, is getting more deeply invested in that plan. OpenAI is expected to announce on Monday that it is taking an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, and that it will embed A.I. specialists at Thrive Holdings' companies, which already include an accounting business and an I.T. services one. The move comes amid the continuing rush by businesses to adopt A.I. as a competitive advantage. And for OpenAI, the hope is that working more closely with Thrive Holdings will demonstrate how companies can harness the technology behind OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot -- and create buzz to entice other potential customers. "What we're trying to do with this partnership is really prove out ways that we can accelerate that type of transformation," Brad Lightcap, OpenAI's chief operating officer, said in an interview. The search for new business comes at a crucial moment for OpenAI: The company is valued at $500 billion by investors and has committed about $1.4 trillion in infrastructure spending by 2033 -- justified by what it expects will be hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue by 2030. Its competitors are not standing still. Anthropic, which makes the Claude chatbot, is getting wider distribution because of partnerships with the likes of Microsoft, one of OpenAI's longtime backers. And Google has won plaudits for, and gained billions in market value on, the promise of its latest A.I. model. Yet OpenAI has been busy courting new business, something that it hopes deeper involvement with Thrive Holdings will help with. Thrive Capital created Thrive Holdings this year, with an initial $1 billion in funding. The vehicle aims to do serial deal-making -- known in financial lingo as roll-ups -- in relatively humdrum industries that it says would benefit from A.I., a strategy that other venture capital firms have embarked on. Thrive Holdings' two current operations, the accounting business Crete Professionals Alliance and the I.T. services provider Shield Technology Partners, have more than 1,000 employees in total. Thrive Holdings has committed $500 million to Crete, which the trade publication Accounting Today described this year as one of the fastest-growing accounting firms in the United States. Thrive Holdings and the investment firm ZBS Partners have committed more than $100 million in Shield, which is on track to strike 10 acquisitions by year end. But Thrive Holdings was also meant to help modernize how these companies operate, akin to what Thrive Capital and its founder, Josh Kushner, have done with the health insurer Oscar Health. (Mr. Kushner is the brother of Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law.) That includes thinking about how to overhaul their business practices, and not just eke out slightly better operating margins. Crete, for example, has been working to use the technology to automate tasks such as data entry and processing tax returns to help free up accountants to work more directly with clients. "We think A.I. has the promise of making these industries much more human," Kareem Zaki, a Thrive Capital partner who also runs investment strategy at Thrive Holdings, said in an interview. Thrive Holdings was always meant to draw on the expertise of OpenAI, in which Thrive Capital has been a prominent backer. Now the A.I. giant is expected to embed researchers and engineers in Thrive Holdings' companies. And OpenAI will help to create customized models for Crete and Shield, according to Anuj Mehndiratta, a partner at Thrive Capital who oversees product and technology strategy at Thrive Holdings. After Thrive Holdings was created, Mr. Lightcap and Mr. Kushner started talking about how to better make A.I. a core technology for fast-growing companies. Those conversations led to OpenAI's taking an ownership stake, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly about private discussions. (Financial details of the arrangement were not immediately available.) "We think the impact A.I. has in businesses and in the enterprise is going to be actually transformative," Mr. Lightcap said. "That could happen on a near-term timeline. And we're trying to figure out how to kind of make that happen as fast as we can."

OpenAI Takes Equity Stake in Thrive Holdings | AIM

The partnership will involve training advanced AI models for specific tasks within Holding's businesses, "guided by both company-specific data and expert feedback," said Joshua Kushner, founder at Thrive Capital. OpenAI, the AI giant and the maker of ChatGPT, has entered into a new partnership with Thrive Holdings (Holdings). As part of the deal, OpenAI will take an equity stake in Holdings, aiming to bring frontier AI into sectors and industries that work on legacy workflows and systems that have barely changed in decades. "The partnership will bring together a unique, cross-functional team, comprising OpenAI's leading research and applied AI teams working alongside engineers, operators, and industry experts at Holdings to deeply integrate AI into the businesses that we own and operate," said Joshua Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, in a post on X. The partnership will involve training advanced AI models for specific tasks within Holding's businesses, "guided by both company-specific data and expert feedback," added Kushner. Other financial details of the partnership were not revealed at the time of the announcement. "OpenAI now has equity and train models for tasks with company-specific data," said Sheel Mohnot, a general partner at Better Tomorrow Ventures, in a post on X. Many others also expressed a similar reaction to the partnership, possibly opening up more avenues of training OpenAI's models. Holdings is a holding company created by Thrive Capital in 2025, designed to acquire and operate businesses in traditional service sectors such as accounting and IT. And Thrive Capital, the New York-based venture capital firm founded in 2009, has backed several high-profile technology companies and is also an established investor in OpenAI. In 2024, the VC firm led a major $6.6 billion funding round in OpenAI, committing roughly $1 billion. As of the most recent reports around the share sale of OpenAI employee stock, Thrive was among the firms that bought shares -- a deal that reportedly helped push OpenAI's post-money valuation to around $500 billion. This has raised fresh questions about the circular nature of the arrangement.

OpenAI acquires stake in Thrive Holdings; eyes driving enterprise AI adoption - The Economic Times

Following the stake buy, OpenAI's research, product, and engineering teams will be embedded into the portfolio companies of the New York-based investment vehicle of Thrive Capital. Accounting and IT functions will be the first to be automated.OpenAI has acquired a stake in Thrive Holdings, the New York-based investment vehicle of Thrive Capital, the two companies confirmed in separate statements on Monday. "Through our partnership, OpenAI will become an equity owner in Holdings, and collectively we will set out to deliver frontier technology for our customers," Joshua Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital, wrote on X. As part of the collaboration, OpenAI's research, product, and engineering teams will be embedded into Thrive Holdings' portfolio companies. The company noted that early efforts will centre on accounting and IT functions. "OpenAI and Thrive Holdings will work together to drive direct, scalable impact across core enterprise operations. The initial focus is accounting and IT services because these functions run high-volume, rules-driven, workflow-heavy processes where OpenAI's platform can drive immediate benefits," the Sam Altman-led company said. The partnership has made OpenAI an equity stakeholder in Thrive Holdings, a move the company said is aimed at integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into businesses. In October, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI was valued at $500 billion, after current and former employees sold roughly $6.6 billion worth of its shares. The OpenAI employees sold shares to a consortium of investors, including Thrive Capital, SoftBank, Dragoneer Investment Group, Abu Dhabi's MGX, and T. OpenAI generated around $4.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2025, about 16% more than it generated all of last year. Meanwhile, ChatGPT, the world's most popular AI chatbot, has completed three years at a time when rising competition is intensifying, and its parent company is reshaping itself for the next phase of growth. With the shift to a for-profit structure, OpenAI expects a larger share of its user base to pay for premium access. According to OpenAI's projections, by 2030, roughly 220 million users will subscribe. As of July, about 35 million users -- nearly 5% of ChatGPT's weekly active base -- paid for "Plus" or "Pro" plans.

OpenAI takes stake in Thrive Holdings to boost enterprise AI adoption By Investing.com

Investing.com -- OpenAI announced a partnership with Thrive Holdings aimed at accelerating enterprise AI adoption, with the AI company taking an ownership stake in Thrive. The collaboration will focus initially on accounting and IT services, targeting high-volume, rules-driven processes where OpenAI's technology can deliver immediate benefits. OpenAI plans to embed its research, product, and engineering teams within Thrive Holdings' companies to improve speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency. "AI is redefining how enterprises are built and deliver value for customers," said Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI. "This partnership with Thrive Holdings is about demonstrating what's possible when frontier AI research and deployment are rapidly deployed across entire organizations." Joshua Kushner, CEO and founder of Thrive Capital and Thrive Holdings, stated: "We believe this paradigm shift will happen from the inside out as domain experts and practitioners use AI as a native tool to reshape their fields." The deal adds to OpenAI's recent string of partnerships that have faced criticism for their circular nature. These include arrangements with Nvidia for a potential $100 billion investment and a separate multi-billion dollar chip deal with AMD that could make OpenAI a major AMD shareholder. Thrive, founded by Kushner in 2010, first invested in OpenAI in 2023 at a $27 billion valuation and later led a $6.6 billion investment that valued the AI company at $157 billion. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.