--- --- Aug 26, 2025 # Joshua Kushner Founder and managing partner, Thrive Capital by [Andrew R. Chow](https://time.com/author/andrew-r-chow/) ## Andrew R. Chow Correspondent  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Photo: Edward Berthelot—Getty Images) Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital has played a major role in driving AI’s business boom. Long before the cultural explosion of ChatGPT, Thrive was one of OpenAI’s first major investors. Last October, Thrive led a $6.6 billion funding round for OpenAI, and has contributed to a monster [round](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/business/dealbook/openai-ai-mega-funding-deal.html) this year. “Josh makes high-conviction bets on high-quality companies and founders, and he doesn’t care too much about what other investors think,” Sam Altman told [Fortune last year](https://fortune.com/longform/josh-kushner-net-worth-thrive-capital-investments-openai-100-billion-valuation/).[ ](https://fortune.com/longform/josh-kushner-net-worth-thrive-capital-investments-openai-100-billion-valuation/) Kushner’s past successes have allowed Thrive, which now [manages](https://www.ft.com/content/44c4504c-8d79-4b09-bf72-b04cf8082736) more than $25 billion, to aggressively wager on projects across AI. Those investments include Isomorphic Labs, an algorithmic drug researcher; Anysphere, which built the AI coding tool Cursor; and the data analytics company Databricks. Kushner isn’t just placing short-term stakes, either: this year he [announced](https://x.com/JoshuaKushner/status/1917217194783494258) the launch of Thrive Holdings, which will acquire and build businesses that could benefit from artificial intelligence over the long term—and operate them for decades. That makes Kushner not just a money man, but a major player shaping how AI will be deployed across industries. Joshua Kushner: The 100 Most Influential People in AI 2025 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305809/joshua-kushner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305809/joshua-kushner/"},"headline":"Joshua Kushner","datePublished":"2025-08-26T18:59:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:41.245Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305809/joshua-kushner/","keywords":["Tech","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","TIME100 AI 2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3da07c2eefa11fcf/6998c92b47fe512dc355c002/Joshua-Kushner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Andrew R. Chow","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/andrew-r-chow/"}],"creator":"Andrew R. Chow","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3da07c2eefa11fcf/6998c92b47fe512dc355c002/Joshua-Kushner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305809/joshua-kushner/","name":"Joshua Kushner"}}]}] ```