Joshua Kushner was just 26 years old when he founded Thrive Capital in 2011. Since then, his firm has backed some of the most notable startups of the past decade, including Instagram, Spotify, and most notably, OpenAI.
The tech startup has become ubiquitous because of ChatGPT, which launched in 2022 to nearly overnight success. At the time, not many were willing to invest in the newcomer, and even Sam Altman himself told Kushner that the company was anything but a sure bet. But Thrive has ultimately put in around $1.3 billion into the ChatGPT maker since its inception. In 2023, the firm led a funding round for OpenAI, investing nearly $130 million. And in 2024, another Thrive-led round ended with a OpenAI valuation of $157 billion.
