Investment firm Thrive has acquired a minority ownership stake in the San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, its first sports franchise stakeholding.
Thrive has taken a non-controlling minority stake in the Giants, a franchise that Forbes valued at $4.05 billion in total earlier in 2026.
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Controlling owner Greg Johnson, who stepped into the role of control person for the team in 2019 (his father was part of the consortium that acquired the Giants in 1993), will retain his position going forward.
To be ratified, the deal must be voted through by 75% of MLB franchise owners at an owners meeting, although that is not likely to pose an issue.
Thrive is headed by Joshua Kushner, a member of the Kushner business family, who founded the firm in 2009 with a focus on tech companies and has recently invested heavily in the AI space.
The stake was acquired through the firm’s new Thrive Eternal subsidiary, which it says is positioned towards investments in “cultural institutions” that it says will be immune from value degradation in the face of AI technology.
In a statement posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Kushner explained that Thrive Eternal is positioned toward: “assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology. Iconic franchises and cultural institutions rooted in tradition, identity, and shared experience. In a world shaped by abundant intelligence where creation scales and distribution fragments, we believe they will matter even more.
“Thrive Eternal is built on the belief that the most enduring of these assets share common characteristics: they benefit from long-term stewardship, they compound through cultural resonance, and they are enhanced by technology rather than displaced by it.”
On the Giants franchise itself, he added that the team is: “an institution built on more than a century of shared identity and community, and among the most iconic sports franchises in America.”
One of the most historic franchises in MLB, the Giants boast eight World Series titles, the most recent of which was won in 2014, but have not reached the postseason playoffs since 2021.
Among the team’s most prominent assets is its 42,300-capacity Oracle Park home, which ranks 13th in the league in terms of capacity, and 16th in terms of age, having been opened in 2000.
Currently, the team sits fourth in the National League West (NL West) after 28 games, with 13 wins.
Most recently, the team added AI tech firm ElevenLabs as its newest sponsor.
This announcement comes just a week after it was revealed that Jose E. Feliciano, co-founder of investment fund Clearlake, won the race to acquire the San Diego Padres (the Giants’ NL West divisional rivals) franchise for a record $3.9 billion fee.
The anticipation of a new collective bargaining agreement required at the end of 2026, and the league’s 2028 media rights negotiations, could influence future revenue numbers and franchise values, hence the recent increase in new acquisitions and investments.
This means that many other franchise owners who have explored sales in recent years, including the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Angels, could now find interest where previous attempts fell short.
