TL;DRJoshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital has invested roughly $100 million in Shopify, a rare public-market bet by the venture firm best known for backing OpenAI, SpaceX, and Stripe. Shopify stock is down approximately 40% year to date after guidance suggested slowing revenue growth. Thrive framed the investment as a bet on AI-driven commerce. The firm, which raised a $10 billion fund in February, previously made $522 million from a contrarian Carvana trade and is part of a growing cohort of VC firms crossing into public equities.
Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital has taken a roughly $100 million stake in Shopify, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. The investment is notable less for its size, $100 million is a rounding error in a firm that raised more than $10 billion for its latest fund, than for what it signals about where the most successful venture investors now see value. Thrive, best known for backing OpenAI, SpaceX, and Stripe when they were private, is buying a public company whose stock has fallen 40% this year.
The firm told its stakeholders that the Shopify position is a bet on how artificial intelligence could drive gains in commerce. That framing connects the investment to a broader thesis Thrive has pursued across its portfolio: that AI will restructure the economics of every industry it touches, from defence to drug discovery to, now, the software that powers online retail.
