Jim Siders speaks at an event
Courtesy: Jim Siders
Thrive Holdings, owned by OpenAI and Strive investor Thrive Capital, announced on Monday that it’s tapped Palantir veteran Jim Siders to serve as CEO of Shield Technology Partners, a newly created business focused on IT services.
Siders spent more than 12 years at Palantir, where he most recently served as chief information officer, overseeing global IT operations, business applications and infrastructure. He began his career at the company as an IT helpdesk engineer.
Palantir has been one of the best performers on the stock market during the artificial intelligence boom, jumping by almost thirtyfold since the end 2022.
Thrive, founded by Josh Kushner, launched Thrive Holdings in April, creating a division to own and operate companies that it believes could benefit from technological transformations. Shield was launched in June by Thrive Holdings and investment firm ZBS Partners, with over $100 million in initial funding.
Shield buys ownership stakes in IT services companies and tries to help them grow by giving them access to cutting-edge AI technology and engineering capabilities.
“If we’re doing this right, we’re going to see a lot of value created all the way up the chain, from end customer all the way through to us here at Shield,” Siders told CNBC in an interview. “These are great businesses, and they’re going to be rising up even more.”
As of December, Shield works with seven companies and is expected to generate more than $100 million in revenue this year, Thrive said. Shield primarily works with small and mid-sized businesses, and has ambitions to expand its portfolio going forward.
In addition to its work with Shield in IT services, Thrive Holdings also operates in the accounting sector.
Earlier this month, OpenAI announced it took an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings and will embed engineering, research and product teams within its companies.
“We said, ‘The way in which we’re going to achieve the best results for our customers is if OpenAI is an owner in Thrive Holdings alongside us,'” Anuj Mehndiratta, a member of Thrive Holdings’ founding team, said in an interview. “By being an owner, they will be enabled to actually focus on end outcomes in the same way that we are.”
Shield’s ownership structure is based on a similar line of thinking. To help align incentives and encourage companies to participate, the IT services organizations that Shield backs retain equity in their companies.
Siders kicks off his tenure as Shield CEO on Monday, and he said his initial focus will be on understanding its existing partners and searching for potential targets. He said Shield will be ambitious in the next few quarters.
“There’s a whole industry out there, people who’ve spent their careers trying to deliver this value for everybody’s benefit,” Siders said. “This is a unique and special thing to attack that.”
Correction: A prior version of this story mischaracterized part of the agreement between Shield and the organizations it backs. Those businesses retain equity in their companies.
WATCH: Joe Lonsdale on AI regulation: Don’t want the populists to break the whole AI wave
