Venture capital firm Thrive Capital, known for its important investments, including doubling down on OpenAI, has promoted Philip Clark to partner. Clark,who joined the firm in 2024,shared his investment ideology and views on the AI market.

Clark emphasizes a “counterfactual” approach to investing. He assesses potential investments based on two key tests: whether the world woudl be different if the company or idea didn’t exist,and whether the individual leading the venture is uniquely impactful. “there are two types of counterfactuals that are really vital when I partner with someone. Test A: If this company or idea didn’t exist, would the world look the same or different? And I don’t mean it in a loosey-goosey way. If you walked down the street, would the world look physically different? Or if you go on your computer, does that computer look different? And Test B: Is this person counterfactually impactful? Could I give another really smart person this same idea, and get a similar result on this company? The answer to both these questions is that the idea needs to be counterfactually impactful, and the person needs to be counterfactually important.”

Clark is optimistic about the future of AI, stating, “People are way too narrow in how they think about what the impact of AI will be on the world. There’s a lot about automating knowledge work, but we talk way too little about the fact that this is unlocking fundamentally new ways of manipulating atoms in the physical world… You can actually build fast, manufacturable, easily configurable, highly-customized, valuable hardware and physical world solutions to lots of problems.” He believes AI’s potential extends beyond automating knowledge work to revolutionizing physical world solutions.

While acknowledging that less strong businesses may receive funding, Clark doesn’t believe the current surroundings is a dot-com era bubble. He draws a parallel to the late 1990s, when transformative companies like Google, Amazon, and Netflix emerged amidst the rise and fall of companies like Pets.com and Webvan. “Things can be together true,” said Clark. “Lots of less strong businesses can be funded as the most important companies in the world are created. I don’t think we’re in a dotcom era bubble right now, but it was true even then that the most critically important companies of the Internet were created-Google, Amazon, netflixetc. That was true even as you had Pets.com and Webvan.Our job is to make sure you partner with Amazon, and as long as you do that early-’97, ’99, 2001-that’s going to be an important and wild journey.”

Recent AI Investments and Acquisitions

People are way too narrow in how they think about what the impact of AI will be on the world.

Recent activity in the AI space includes Anthropic raising $13 billion at a $183 billion valuation, with investors including Iconiq, Fidelity, and Lightspeed. Additionally, OpenAI plans to acquire Statsig for $1.1 billion in an all-stock deal.

Venture Deals

Anthropic, a San Francisco-based developer of AI models, raised $13 billion in Series F funding.Investors included Iconiq, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Altimeter, Baillie Gifford affiliated funds of BlackRock, Blackstone, and Coatue.

happyrobot, a San Francisco-based developer of custom AI enterprise workers, raised $44 million in Series B funding. Base10 Partners led the round, with participation from A16Z and Y Combinator.

Kite,a San Francisco-based developer of digital infrastructure for AI agents,raised $18 million in Series A funding. PayPal Ventures and general Catalyst led the round, with participation from 8VC, Samsung Next, Alumni Ventures, SBI US Gateway Fund, Vertex Ventures, Dispersion Capital, Avalanche Foundation, GSR Markets, and Layero.

Meroka, a New york City-based platform designed to help independent physicians transition ownership of their practices to their employees, raised $6 million in seed funding. better Tomorrow Ventures and Slow Ventures led the round, with participation from 8VC.

Private Equity

bradford, a portfolio company of Distinct Capital, acquired Solo Labs, a Broadview, Ill.-based developer, formulator, and manufacturer of liquid and aerosol personal care products. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Bregal Sagemount acquired a majority stake in Spark Membership, a Tampa, Fla.-based provider of membership management and embedded payments software to martial arts studios. Financial terms were not disclosed.