Eye On AI: Thrive Capital’s Busy Year

This column is a look back at the week that was in AI. Read the previous one here.

While reports have been swirling for weeks now, it is still somewhat difficult to wrap one’s head around OpenAI’s reported new valuation of $150 billion.

Not only does it make the startup one of the most valuable private companies in the world, the round seems to keep going up in size the more it’s reported. It now seems to sit at what would be a $6.5 billion round at a mind-blowing $150 billion valuation, with investors such as Tiger Global Management, Khosla Ventures, Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple and Abu Dhabi-based MGX participating.

However, it is obviously Thrive Capital that is getting the most of the attention, reportedly leading the round with plans to commit $1 billion.

The New York-based investment firm, co-founded by Joshua Kushner, has been around for a decade and a half — with its last three funds totaling $6 billion.

While it has had numerous successful exits — including Unity, Slack and OpenGov (just this year) — the firm keeps a rather low profile and sometimes can be overlooked in mentions of VC giants.

However, as its funds have grown so has the number of rounds — and their sizes — it is willing to participate in.

Thrive, like almost all firms, has significantly pulled back on its investment cadence from 2021 — which saw it invest in more than a dozen startups quarterly — but is still investing in a good number of startups and in huge rounds.

The firm already has taken part in nearly 20 funding deals this year, per Crunchbase data — including some of the biggest. That includes co-leading cloud security startup Wiz’s $1 billion round at a $12 billion valuation — the biggest cybersecurity round of the year thus far.

In addition, Thrive took part in Scale AI’s $1 billion in a Series F round led by Accel that valued the data labeling and evaluation startup at a stunning $13.8 billion in May, and it also took part in AI-enhanced pharma company Formation Bio’s $372 million Series D led by a16z in May.

Of course, it also led OpenAI’s secondary offering in February at an $80 billion valuation.

None of those rounds caused Thrive to write as big a check as it will have to for the new OpenAI deal — but it’s unlikely it will feel uncomfortable doing so as it continues its march of big deals.

Things that caught our eye and other stuff:

• Of course, OpenAI is not the only company in the sector watching their valuation rise. It was reported late last week AI cloud infrastructure startup CoreWeave is in talks to sell existing shares that would value it at $23 billion, per Bloomberg. In May, the startup was valued at $19 billion after locking up a $1.1 billion round, and just last December was valued at $7 billion after a secondary sale. That means in about nine months the company’s valuation has more than tripled. CoreWeave’s investors include  Magnetar Capital and Coatue — who likely are pretty happy right now.
• Not to be outdone, AI-enhanced work assistant and enterprise search engine Glean also saw its value shoot up last week. Less than seven months after raising a more than $200 million Series D at a $2.2 billion valuation, the startup raised more than $260 million in a Series E funding at a $4.6 billion valuation co-led by Altimeter Capital and DST Global. The Palo Alto, California-based startup hit unicorn status just in May 2023 after raising a $100 million Series C led by Sequoia Capital.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman