OpenAI’s investment into Thrive Holdings is its latest circular deal
OpenAI takes an ownership stake Thriving companieswhose parent company is one of the AI giant’s largest investors, Thrive Capital.
Thrive Holdings operates as an AI private equity firm, setting up companies it believes could benefit from the technology in sectors such as accounting and IT services.
Neither company disclosed terms of the deal, but it will involve OpenAI embedding engineering, research and product teams within Thrive’s businesses to accelerate AI adoption and increase efficiencies, the company says. If these companies succeed, OpenAI’s importance will grow and the company will be compensated for its services reporting from CNBC.
The partnership follows a pattern of circular deals for the $500 billion AI giant, which has also recently taken stakes in infrastructure partners such as Advanced Micro Devices and CoreWeave. Analysts will be keeping an eye on whether Thrive-owned companies actually succeed in building long-term profitable businesses using OpenAI’s technology, or whether the result is really just inflated valuations based on speculative market potential.
