OpenAI has announced its plan to acquire a stake in Thrive Holdings, an investment fund established by Thrive Capital. In the agreement announced on Monday, OpenAI will collaborate with Thrive Holdings to accelerate the adoption of AI in businesses, beginning with accounting and IT services.
Thrive Capital, a major investor in OpenAI, established Thrive Holdings earlier this year to launch and acquire companies that can utilise artificial intelligence.
“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 company said in a statement.
OpenAI will integrate its research, product, and engineering teams into Thrive Holdings’ companies, aiming to improve speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency while enhancing service quality. The initiative will develop a repeatable model that can be expanded into other industries, it said.
Thrive, founded in 2010 by Josh Kushner, is known for making a few but significant bets and holding them for years. Recently, Thrive shifted its focus to AI. It first invested in OpenAI in 2023 at a valuation of $27 billion. Later that year, it led a $6.6 billion investment, valuing the company at $157 billion. In April, Thrive launched Thrive Holdings, according to a Bloomberg report.
Speaking on the latest partnership, Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI, said, “This partnership with Thrive Holdings is about demonstrating what’s possible when frontier AI research and deployment are rapidly deployed across entire organisations to revolutionise how businesses work and engage with customers. We hope this partnership serves as a model for how businesses and industries around the world can deeply partner with OpenAI.”
Mounting debt
The latest development comes after a recent analysis by The Financial Times alleged that companies tied to OpenAI, which supplies data centres, chips, and computing processing power, have borrowed approximately $96 billion in debt to fund their operations.
According to the report, companies such as SoftBank, Oracle, and CoreWeave have borrowed at least $30 billion to invest in the unprofitable startup. They are reportedly taking advantage of a debt-driven spending surge without bearing any of the financial risks, highlighting the AI industry’s growing reliance on debt.