OpenAI-backed Thrive Holdings agrees to acquire ADT in $15.3 billion deal

Thrive Holdings has agreed to acquire the physical security company ADT for $10 per share, which works out to about $7.6 billion in equity, the companies announced on Thursday. ADT said the total enterprise value of the deal, including more than equity, is $15.3 billion.

Thrive Holdings is the private equity spinout of Thrive Capital, the venture firm led by Josh Kushner. OpenAI is both a partner and an investor in it. Thrive Holdings says its mission is to hold companies long-term and revitalize them with AI, and that it currently holds over 75 companies.

As a partner, OpenAI supplies AI models and technology to Thrive's companies, along with people known as forward-deployed engineers. Neither ADT nor Thrive said which AI-powered security products they plan to release, though they indicated the plan is to invest and launch new ones. The press release said ADT will form the foundation of Thrive Holdings' smart home security business.

The deal is a large test of Thrive Holdings' model of buying established companies and applying AI to improve them. ADT is a well-known name in home security, a business built on installed hardware, monitoring and customer relationships rather than software alone.

The timing coincides with growing activity in AI-enabled physical security. TechCrunch notes that Apple recently entered the field with smart home and security products made with LG and Schneider Electric, and that Amazon updated its smart home line with new AI-powered cameras. Some startups are even offering AI robot dogs as roving security guards.

For OpenAI, the transaction is another route for its models and engineers to reach consumer products through a partner and investor rather than only through its own offerings. How much of that is realized at ADT is not yet clear from the announcement.

The companies have not said what products will result or on what timeline. The details of the AI offerings, and how OpenAI's engineers are deployed at ADT, will show whether the deal changes the product or mainly the ownership.