Express Delivery | Another Circular Transaction: OpenAI Trades Technology for Shares, Ties Core Investor Thrive Holdings
OpenAI Takes Stake in Thrive Holdings Amid Circular Deal Concerns
Image credit: Unsplash
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Overview
OpenAI is acquiring equity in Thrive Holdings, an investment arm created earlier this year by Thrive Capital. This adds to the growing list of circular transactions between the maker of ChatGPT and its backers.
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Background on Thrive Holdings
- Founded: Early 2024 by Thrive Capital
- Purpose: Incubate and acquire companies that can benefit from artificial intelligence.
- Thrive Capital is a major investor in OpenAI.
- Known for a “few but focused” investment strategy with long-term portfolio commitments.
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Partnership Details
Under the agreement announced Monday, OpenAI and Thrive Holdings will work together to accelerate AI adoption in sectors such as:
- Accounting
- IT services
Key points of the deal:
- No direct financial investment by OpenAI into Thrive Holdings.
- OpenAI gains equity by embedding its teams inside Thrive Holdings portfolio companies.
- OpenAI staff will help these firms improve speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency.
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Thrive’s Track Record with OpenAI
- In early 2023, Thrive Capital invested in OpenAI at a valuation of $27 billion.
- Later in 2023, Thrive led a $6.6 billion funding round, bringing valuation to $157 billion.
- Thrive Holdings was launched in April 2024 using a private equity-style model.
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Strategic Objectives
Both companies aim to accelerate enterprise AI adoption, a priority for OpenAI as it faces:
- High infrastructure costs for building and running AI systems
- Pressure to deliver commercial results and attract more enterprise customers
> Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s COO:
> “We hope this becomes a model for deep collaboration between OpenAI and global enterprises and industries.”
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Concerns Over Circular Transactions
The deal adds to scrutiny around interconnected business arrangements in the AI industry, such as:
- Equity swaps
- Chip procurement commitments
- Cloud computing contracts
These complex relationships raise concerns about artificially inflating the AI market.
Example patterns:
- Nvidia invested up to $100B in OpenAI; in return, OpenAI committed to deploying millions of Nvidia chips.
- Weeks later, OpenAI struck a deal with AMD to buy tens of billions of dollars in chips, potentially making OpenAI one of AMD’s largest shareholders.
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Industry Context
This transaction represents OpenAI taking a stake in a subsidiary owned by a VC firm in which it already has equity.
Industry insiders say the setup is meant to align long-term interests between both parties.
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References
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Broader Implications for AI Commercialization
Collaborations like OpenAI–Thrive Holdings reflect strategic investment patterns and highlight a growing need for tools that streamline deployment and monetization of AI.
Emerging ecosystems such as AiToEarn官网 demonstrate how creators and enterprises can:
- Generate and publish AI-driven content
- Monetize across multiple channels — including Douyin, Bilibili, LinkedIn, and X
- Integrate analytics and model performance rankings
These capabilities may become increasingly valuable as AI solutions move from research labs into real-world business operations.
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Do you want me to also add a visual diagram summarizing the relationships between OpenAI, Thrive Holdings, Nvidia, and AMD? That would make these circular transactions easier to follow.
