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(Bloomberg) — From SpaceX’s IPO to a record acquisition of the Los Angeles Lakers to a FIFA deal that collapsed within days, Josh Kushner has found himself at the center of some of the year’s splashiest deals.
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The 41-year-old is now steering Thrive Capital, the venture firm he founded 16 years ago, beyond its roots of backing startups and private growth companies to become an investor in public markets and a long-term owner of high-profile trophy assets.
The moves will make it harder for Kushner to maintain his long cultivated, under-the-radar profile. Already, he’s amassed a fortune the Bloomberg Billionaires Index puts at about $17.5 billion, ranking him among the world’s 500 richest people for the first time.
In recent months, Thrive has invested in companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Shopify Inc. Its new Thrive Holdings strategy has raised more than $2 billion to buy and operate unsexy businesses like accounting firms and information technology servicers that it hopes to transform with AI. Another strategy, Thrive Eternal, is targeting assets it expects will be AI-proof and is helping finance the Lakers purchase at a $12.5 billion price.
“We have never believed that the traditional boundaries of our industry need to define us,” Kushner wrote to his investors in August.
A spokesperson for Kushner declined to comment on Bloomberg’s valuation of his net worth.
Among Thrive’s largest private company investments is OpenAI, the Sam Altman-led ChatGPT maker that has lifted the entire industry of artificial intelligence. Thrive first backed the company in 2023 and has invested across several funds since. An IPO, expected as soon as next year, could deliver a massive windfall for its backers. Thrive is also an investor in other potential IPO candidates, including fintech Stripe and defense company Anduril.
One catalyst for Thrive’s expansion this year was SpaceX’s $1.77 trillion IPO in June. Thrive first invested in Elon Musk’s space company at a $38 billion valuation. It also backed AI coding company Cursor at a $9.9 billion valuation, 14 months before SpaceX bought it for $60 billion. The firm first invested in Cursor at a $400 million valuation.
