Thrive Holdings, the operating arm launched this year by Thrive Capital founder Josh Kushner, said on Monday it has appointed long-time Palantir executive Jim Siders as chief executive officer of Shield Technology Partners, a newly formed business focused on modernizing IT services through artificial intelligence.
Siders joins Shield after spending more than 12 years at Palantir, one of the most prominent beneficiaries of the AI boom. He most recently served as the data analytics company’s chief information officer, where he oversaw global IT operations, enterprise systems, and infrastructure supporting Palantir’s rapid growth. His career at the firm began at the ground level as an IT helpdesk engineer, giving him what he describes as a “full-stack” view of how technology organizations scale from early-stage operations to global enterprises.
Palantir’s trajectory has made Siders’ background particularly notable. The company’s shares have surged nearly thirtyfold since late 2022, as governments and enterprises embraced its AI-driven data platforms. That experience, Thrive believes, positions Siders well to lead Shield’s ambition to bring advanced AI capabilities to a fragmented and often under-digitized IT services industry.
Thrive Capital, an early investor in OpenAI and Stripe, launched Thrive Holdings in April as a distinct division designed to own and operate businesses rather than simply invest in them. The idea is to identify traditional service companies that could be transformed by technology, acquire meaningful ownership stakes, and then actively drive operational change using AI, engineering talent, and modern software tools.
Shield Technology Partners was created in June as part of that strategy through a partnership between Thrive Holdings and investment firm ZBS Partners. The venture launched with more than $100 million in initial funding and focuses on acquiring stakes in IT services providers, particularly those serving small and mid-sized businesses. Shield aims to help these firms grow faster and operate more efficiently by giving them access to cutting-edge AI models, automation tools, and shared engineering resources that would typically be out of reach.
“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 said in an interview.
He described the companies Shield works with as “great businesses” that are poised to benefit disproportionately as AI reshapes how IT services are delivered.
As of December, Shield works with seven portfolio companies and is expected to generate more than $100 million in revenue this year, according to Thrive. While its current footprint is concentrated in IT services, the platform has ambitions to expand its portfolio and scale aggressively over the coming quarters, as consolidation and technology disruption accelerate across the sector.
Shield’s structure is designed to align incentives between the platform and the companies it backs. Rather than fully absorbing its partners, Shield allows IT services firms to retain equity in their businesses, a model intended to encourage founders and management teams to buy into the long-term transformation effort rather than pursue short-term exits.
The Shield appointment also comes as Thrive deepens its ties with OpenAI. Earlier this month, OpenAI disclosed that it had taken an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, a move that goes beyond a typical commercial partnership. Under the arrangement, OpenAI will embed engineering, research, and product teams directly within Thrive’s operating companies, including Shield’s portfolio.
“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,’” said Anuj Mehndiratta, a member of Thrive Holdings’ founding team.
He added that ownership enables OpenAI to focus on long-term outcomes rather than short-term deployments, aligning its incentives with Thrive’s operating model.
The immediate priority for Siders, who officially began his role as Shield CEO on Monday, is to understand Shield’s existing partners and identify new acquisition targets. He signaled that the platform plans to move quickly, describing the next few quarters as a period of ambition and expansion.
“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.”
The appointment denotes how investors closely tied to the AI ecosystem are now pushing beyond software and models into the harder work of transforming legacy service industries, betting that ownership, scale, and deep integration with AI developers like OpenAI can unlock value that traditional private equity and venture capital approaches have struggled to capture.
