Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. OpenAI says that it has taken an undisclosed ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, the management-focused offshoot of private equity heavyweight Thrive Capital, which itself is a major investor in the ChatGPT maker.

“This partnership with Thrive Holdings is about demonstrating what’s possible when frontier AI research and deployment are rapidly deployed across entire organizations to revolutionize how businesses work and engage with customers,” Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI said, according to [1]a canned statement that accompanied the news.

Reading between the lines, OpenAI will ingratiate its products into Thrive Holdings’ stable of accounting and managed service provider businesses in a bid to show how it can provide value in enterprise workflows. In June, Thrive Holdings spent $100 million to stand up an umbrella group that sells IT services under the name Shield Technology Partners, which is made up of the IT services firms ClearFuze Networks, Delval Technology Solutions, IronOrbit, and OneNet Global, according to a [2]statement at the time .

[3]

OpenAI said it plans to embed its own research, product, and engineering teams into those organizations to help automate certain processes, starting with IT services and accounting, "because these functions run high-volume, rules-driven, workflow-heavy processes where OpenAI's platform can drive immediate benefits," in the words of the vendor. OpenAI says it hopes to use this initiative to create a "repeatable model" that they can then apply to other industries.

[4]OpenAI cuts off Mixpanel after analytics leak exposes API users

[5]Now you can share your AI delusions with Group ChatGPT

[6]HSBC spies $207B crater in OpenAI's expansion goals

[7]OpenAI's viability called into question by reported inference spending with Microsoft

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in OpenAI’s Monday announcement. The Register has reached out to OpenAI and Thrive Holdings for comment and details and will update if we hear back.

Thrive Holdings’ parent company, Thrive Capital, has invested billions into OpenAI through multiple rounds, and was one of three leaders (alongside Dragoneer and Softbank) in the AI giant's massive $40 billion funding round in March of this year, as per [8]Pitchbook .

[9]

Thrive Holdings and Thrive Capital founder and CEO Joshua Kushner said they plan to embed OpenAI’s frontier models, products, and services into business areas that can produce better results with these advances. Kushner’s brother is Jared Kushner, a US foreign policy advisor who is married to President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka. ®

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[1] https://openai.com/index/thrive-holdings/

[2] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250605512954/en/Thrive-Holdings-ZBS-Partners-Launch-Shield-Technology-Partners-an-AI-enabled-Platform-for-IT-Services-Businesses-with-over-%24100M-in-Initial-Funding

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aS5yavBnWm1d8QJnJTILXAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/27/openai_mixpanel_api/

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/14/openai_chatgpt_group_texts/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/26/openai_funding_gap_hsbc/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/12/openai_spending_report/

[8] https://my.pitchbook.com/profile/149504-14/company/deals#deal-278597-80T

[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aS5yavBnWm1d8QJnJTILXAAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/