Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital and investment firm Capital Group have in recent months visited China to learn about its artificial intelligence (AI) industry, joining a growing number of US investors rekindling interest in the country after DeepSeek’s advances stunned Silicon Valley.
Senior people at Thrive met companies and funds in China to discuss AI, people familiar with their visit to the country said. Kushner did not join the delegation, one of the people said, asking to remain anonymous discussing a private event.
At the same time, Capital Group – one of the world’s largest funds – dispatched senior executives to China to find out more about the AI scene, the people said.
The outreach underscores tentative but mounting interest in a once-overlooked Chinese AI industry that is getting reassessed since DeepSeek proved a home-grown firm can design a platform on par with the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic.
