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OpenAI has taken a stake in Thrive Holdings, a company set up by one of its biggest investors, in the latest of a series of circular deals that have enmeshed the $500bn start-up with its customers, suppliers and backers.
The deal announced on Monday means OpenAI will take a share in the group set up by New York-based Thrive Capital, which is run by Josh Kushner and is among the biggest backers of the artificial intelligence start-up alongside SoftBank, Microsoft and Khosla Ventures.
“We are excited to extend our partnership with OpenAI to embed their frontier models, products and services into sectors we believe have tremendous potential to benefit from technological innovation and adoption,” said Kushner.
Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer, said he hoped the partnership “serves as a model for how businesses and industries around the world can deeply partner with OpenAI”.
Thrive Holdings was established earlier this year to acquire service providers such as accounting and IT firms, seeking to transform them using AI.
Kushner is the brother of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
This is a developing story