OpenAI has taken ownership of Thrive Holdings, whose parent company is Thrive Capital, one of the AI giant's major investors.
Thrive Holdings operates like an AI private equity firm, attracting companies it believes could benefit from the technology in areas such as accounting and IT services.
Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal, but the companies said it will include Thrive's internal engineering, research and product teams that have integrated OpenAI to accelerate AI adoption and drive efficiencies. If these companies are successful, their stake in OpenAI will increase and they will also receive compensation for their services, according to a report from CNBC.
The partnership follows a pattern of circular deals for the $500 billion AI giant, which has also recently acquired stakes in infrastructure partners such as Advanced Micro Devices and CoreWeave. Analysts will be interested to see whether the Thrive-owned companies actually succeed in building long-term profitable businesses using OpenAI's technology, or whether the result is really just an inflated valuation based on speculative market potential.