OpenAI-linked firm raises $2B for AI rollout

Thrive Holdings, a firm that operates like a private equity shop for AI by buying traditional businesses and embedding AI into their workflows, has raised $2 billion in new funding at a $12 billion valuation. Investors include SoftBank, D1 Capital Partners, and Altimeter Capital, with The New York Times first to report the news.

A PE-style approach to AI

Thrive Holdings is a spinout of Thrive Capital, one of OpenAI's major investors. In December 2025, OpenAI took an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings as part of a deal that involved OpenAI sending employees to work with Thrive's companies to accelerate AI adoption.

This hands-on model of AI implementation has become a business in its own right. OpenAI and Anthropic have both partnered with large private equity firms to launch The Deployment Company and Ode with Anthropic, respectively — billion-dollar ventures that build teams of elite engineers who embed themselves into enterprises and implement AI solutions into workflows.

Proven success on the platform

The raise comes off the back of proven success for Thrive's companies, which has surpassed 70 businesses on Thrive Holdings' platforms. The company has focused on two pillars to date: Current, its accounting arm with more than 50 firms and more than 2,000 professionals, and Shield, its information technology arm with around 20 companies on the platform.

Current's self-improving tax agents, dubbed TaxAI, processed more than 7,000 tax returns at 98% accuracy, lowering tax prep times at participating firms by over 30%, according to Thrive. Meanwhile, Shield's AI products have sped up help desk resolution times by 36x, and the platform has doubled the number of custom AI agents deployed in the last month.

• $2 billion raised at a $12 billion valuation
• 70+ businesses on Thrive's platforms
• 50+ firms in Current's accounting arm
• 2,000+ professionals in Current
• 7,000+ tax returns processed by TaxAI at 98% accuracy
• 36x faster help desk resolution times

Expanding into physical assets

Part of Wednesday's fundraise will help Thrive launch a third platform focused on regulatory services for the built environment, described by a spokesperson as: “the work required to get physical assets approved, built, certified, and kept in operation.”

Anuj Mehndiratta, a founding member of Thrive Holdings, told TechCrunch: “The U.S. needs to build and modernize more critical infrastructure, but projects are often constrained by local, technical, and regulatory complexity. This applies across data centers, manufacturing, healthcare, power, water, transportation, and other physical infrastructure.”

“We think AI partnered with a lot of the experts and practitioners at these businesses can really help compress [regulatory bottlenecks], keep the safety standards high, but also be able to do it with less of a burden to the actual building of that and help it do it more efficiently, lower cost and do it faster.”

— Kareem Zaki, founding member of Thrive Holdings, in a statement emailed to TechCrunch

Where AI fits in the field

That sort of complexity is where Thrive, well, thrives — large, fragmented, mission-critical, and operationally complex. While Mehndiratta says AI won't replace field work, local judgement, or professional sign-off, it can help ease manual workflows like research, reporting, permit preparation, inspection documentation, and compliance tracking.

What this means for the industry

Thrive's model is part of a larger trend of AI implementation becoming a viable business. The success of this raise suggests that investors are willing to bet big on the idea that AI's value lies not just in the models themselves, but in the messy, difficult work of making them work in real organizations. For businesses, this could mean new ways to tackle regulatory hurdles that have long slowed projects. For consumers, faster and cheaper infrastructure projects could translate into better services, from reliable power to improved transportation. But there's also a cautionary note: this is a trend that's still largely unproven, and whether AI can truly deliver on these promises at scale remains to be seen.