OpenAI Takes Stake In Thrive Holdings To Speed Up Enterprise AI Adoption

OpenAI recently announced that it has entered a new phase of its enterprise strategy by taking an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, a company formed by Thrive Capital earlier this year. The move signals how the AI major plans to work closely with operators of traditional, high-volume business functions to bring AI deeper into core workflows.

Partnership Focus: Accounting And IT Services

Under the partnership, OpenAI will embed research, engineering, and product teams directly inside Thrive Holdings’ companies. The goal is to improve speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency while modernising service quality.

Thrive Holdings invests in and operates businesses that rely on long-term, technology-driven transformation, beginning with sectors such as accounting and IT services, where workflow-heavy, rules-driven processes can show early productivity gains.

A New Blueprint For Large-Scale AI Adoption

Both organisations expect the work to create a model that can be expanded across other industries. By building AI capabilities from within rather than layering them on top, the partnership aims to demonstrate what scaled AI adoption could look like at an operational level.

“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 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.”

“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,” said Joshua Kushner, CEO and founder of Thrive Capital and Thrive Holdings.

He added, “Historically, technology transformed industries from the outside in. 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 businesses we acquire represent the right reward systems for this evolution, bringing together industry expertise and real-world data that can help improve models on specific tasks and capabilities.”

According to details shared, OpenAI will embed teams directly into Thrive Holdings’ portfolio companies. Thrive operates businesses that are considered part of the “core economy”, and OpenAI aims to bring its platform capabilities into these environments to accelerate adoption.

OpenAI did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement. The company’s recent partnerships with infrastructure players underscore its pattern of working closely with operators to deepen AI deployment across the value chain.