February 25, 2026 – Thrive Capital just made one of its biggest moves yet. Joshua Kushner’s venture firm invested roughly $1 billion in OpenAI. In December, Thrive Capital struck a deal at a $285 billion valuation. Now, OpenAI is raising up to $800 billion. That means Thrive’s stake could be worth nearly three times its entry price.
A Record Fund Built on AI Conviction
The OpenAI investment is no isolated bet. Thrive closed its tenth fund, Thrive X, at over $10 billion. That is nearly double the size of its previous fund. The raise was heavily oversubscribed. Thrive turned away billions in capital it did not need.
Kushner sees AI as a once-in-a-generation opportunity. He told Bloomberg the winners of the AI boom will be bigger than anyone can imagine. The technology, he argues, is still nascent. Thrive is betting it gets in early and stays in.
The OpenAI Relationship Is Unusually Close
Thrive first backed OpenAI in January 2023 at a $29 billion valuation. That was just months after ChatGPT launched. Since then, the relationship has deepened in unusual ways. OpenAI took an equity stake in Thrive Holdings, Kushner’s private equity platform. In exchange, OpenAI embeds engineers and models directly into Thrive Holdings’ companies.
Sam Altman has publicly praised the partnership. After Thrive’s fund closed, Altman wrote on X: he is extremely grateful to work with Kushner. The two men have built something rarer than a financial partnership. It looks more like a strategic alliance.
Why This Matters for the Broader Market
Thrive’s portfolio encompasses a diverse range of private technology companies. It holds OpenAI, Stripe, SpaceX, Databricks, Anduril, and Cursor. SpaceX’s merger with xAI pushed its valuation to $1.25 trillion. Stripe is now worth at least $140 billion. Thrive backed all of them early.
IPO watchers are paying close attention. If OpenAI or SpaceX goes public, the capital returned to limited partners could be staggering. That prospect is part of what made Thrive X so easy to fill.
For now, Thrive holds some of the most valuable private equity positions in the world. Its concentrated, high-conviction strategy was risky. At the moment, it looks prescient.
