The OpenAI debacle seems like it happened months ago, but it’s been a little more than two weeks since the groundbreaking startup ousted CEO Sam Altman and then rehired him. What I’ve learned since then is the important role OpenAI’s investors, specifically Thrive Capital, played during the fiasco.
As the chaos unfolded that Friday, the first call that Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer, made was to Joshua Kushner, Thrive’s founder. Earlier this year, Thrive had invested nearly $130 million in OpenAI, valuing the startup at $29 billion. Then, the VC reupped in October when it led another round of financing for OpenAI at a valuation almost three times higher—$86 billion—buying up employee shares in a deal called a “tender offer,” according Fortune’s latest magazine cover story written by Editor in Chief Alyson Shontell.
