Sam Altman says OpenAI offered to invest $2M in tokens in each startup in the current YC batch; a source says the offer is in exchange for equity via a SAFE
The InformationJemima McEvoy
Context & Ripple Effects
The reported YC-batch offer extends a longstanding overlap between OpenAI, YC, and Sam Altman: YC was an early OpenAI backer, while Altman has retained broad investing ties with companies from his YC tenure.
It also sits alongside OpenAI’s separate startup-fund activity and its much larger capital-raising ambitions, showing the company using access to its products as well as conventional financing relationships.
First-order effects
Current YC companies that accept would receive $2 million in OpenAI tokens and give OpenAI a SAFE-based equity claim, lowering their immediate cost of building with OpenAI’s services.
OpenAI gains an ownership position in participating startups while encouraging product usage across a concentrated cohort of early-stage companies.
Second-order effects
The offer can make OpenAI’s platform more attractive to founders relative to competing AI providers, because the financing and product-credit decisions are bundled.
YC startups may face a clearer trade-off between near-term infrastructure support and the future dilution or commercial alignment implied by the SAFE.
Third-order effects
If repeated across cohorts, AI providers may increasingly compete for startups through hybrid arrangements that combine compute or model credits with equity exposure, rather than treating developer incentives and venture investing as separate activities.
The deepening overlap among accelerator networks, founder investments, and model providers could draw greater scrutiny of conflicts and ecosystem influence, particularly where a prominent industry figure has ties across them.
The trend: This is one data point in AI platforms moving downstream into startup financing to secure early developer adoption and potential upside from the applications built on their models.
i am excited to see what will happen with tokenmaxxing startups, both for how they work internally and the products they can build. openai offered to invest $2M in tokens into every startup in the current yc batch. happy building!
A mic drop moment @ycombinator tonight @sama just offered $2M in OpenAI tokens to EVERY YC startup in the current batch in exchange for equity Just like Yuri Milner offering to invest in every startup back when Sam was a YC partner I can't wait to see what's unlocked when you [im…
Fair warning, YC founders: if you take these tokens, there's a non-zero chance that OpenAI will study exactly what your startup is doing, copy your idea and put your app into their free offering. This is the classic platform playbook — be careful, founders!
Why not give a cash investment instead and be the best so we naturally use OpenAI tokens, isn't that better as a two way incentive rather than a lock in?
Tokens as a form of currency (store of value for the intelligence age) is a concept that I think has more and more traction moving forward. Stripe is running against this theme as well
Wow this is insane. Sam Altman confirms OpenAI's offer of $2M in tokens to every startup in the current Y Combinator batch in exchange for equity. It looks like we're already living in a token economy world. Most people thought Sam Altman was crazy for pursuing $1.4T compute
Unless you are doing absurd revenue numbers to the point where you feel you don't need the free tokens. MOST of the YC batch should take this deal, basically years of token runrate to just build with codex.
This is bullish for startups. OpenAI is willing to exchange $800m of compute for ~2% equity in 400 YC startups. That's only a bet you make if you believe the equity has the potential to be very valuable.
What is there even to say? He's a genius operator. Offer people nothing for something. Get them locked into the OpenAI ecosystem. Collect equity. Collect information. Further the narrative that compute is the new water and control the flow. Dig your tendrils deeper into the world
OpenAI just paid YC startups in tokens, not dollars. The TokenDollar isn't a thesis anymore. It's seed round terms. Compute is the new equity, memory bandwidth is the new gold standard, and the AI economy now runs on its own native currency.
one of the clutch perks of being a partner at YC is having unlimited budget to spend on tokens. curious to see what startups that take this offer and adopt that mindset build