News Summary

• OpenAI is taking an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, whose parent company is one of the AI giant’s major investors, Thrive Capital.
• The partnership follows a pattern of circular dealmaking for the $500 billion AI giant.
• Analysts will be watching to see if Thrive-owned firms actually succeed in building long-term profitable businesses using OpenAI's tech, or if the result is really just pumped-up valuations based on speculative market potential.Thrive Holdings pushed back on the circular characterization.
• A spokesperson emphasized the deal is “responding to an unmet need in the market” rather than creating demand.