blitzar 2 days ago

Is the "mic drop" in the headline refering to how bad a deal this is for any startup that takes it?

shimman 2 days ago

What a great way to boost usage before an IPO. Definitely not scammy behavior!

1123581321 2 days ago

This sounds like how you get (or at least used to get) free AWS and Azure credits in your first x years as a startup or until you met revenue thresholds. You wouldn't get as many, but, you didn't have to give up a share of your company, to my knowledge.

Were there actually larger credit grants that would've been in exchange for equity, or, is OpenAI doing something novel?

jonahbenton 2 days ago

The desperation is strong in this one

KHRZ 2 days ago

If that's in API price, they may be better of with the subscription.

dude250711 2 days ago

Adding more layers to circular investments.

bravetraveler 2 days ago

The first taste is free, with a certain perspective on equity

  • altairprime 2 days ago

    Isn’t that a taxable gift, i.e. reportable income for the recipient, given the normal price charged for said tokens, though?

    • bravetraveler 2 days ago

      I have no idea, just a BigCo engineer! Like someone getting hooked... taxes are a Later Problem. Anyway, the deal sounds less like a 'mic drop' and more like something else hitting the table.

      Say 'Whizbang Model 6.8' comes out and tokens burn ~5x faster; what to do? Agree to give up less of the business or hope for proportional growth? The two million that had been agreed is no longer truly available/applicable. How this and the equity 'shake out' are probably relevant.

      At risk of upsetting people, token value is arbitrary. What model, what time of day? What transaction? All to say: I have no idea what the Tax Man or our fake business would want :) Above my pay grade, thankfully!

    • HWR_14 2 days ago

      No, because it's an investment for equity

  • kotaKat 2 days ago

    It's just a little casual grooming for customers to prey on, is all.

  • red-iron-pine 2 days ago

    the tokens are real electricity and capacity.

    in ~3 years that equity may be worthless.

seattle_spring 2 days ago

> i am excited to see what will happen with tokenmaxxing startups, both for how they work internally and the products they can build.

Am I the only one who gets a physical, visceral churning in their gut when they read/hear someone unironically using the term "tokenmaxxing"?

This is the absolute worst timeline, and I'm embarrassed to even be in an industry adjacent to these dorks.

  • dpoloncsak 2 days ago

    This is not in defense of tokenmaxxing, I just want to remind that CompSci has already been full of ridiculous names that we all just got used to.

    Bogo sort, Canary, and Rubber-Ducking come to mind

    Even BASH comes from 'Borne Again SHell', since they re-did what Stephen Bourne made, and it sounds like 'Born Again'

    • red-iron-pine 2 days ago

      10 years ago i'd never had imagined i'd be using the word 'kubernetes' or 'kube' on the regular

      at least tokenmaxxing has a straightforward implication, and the maxxing implies idiocy or excess

    • seattle_spring 1 day ago

      > Bogo sort, Canary, and Rubber-Ducking come to mind

      None of those come from such a deep hell as the "looksmaxxing" community.

xg15 2 days ago

Is the term "tokenmaxxing" now really used unironically and as a desirable thing?

bigbuppo 2 days ago

Hey, it's the thing I said was going to happen. Thank's for taking my suggestion, Sam.

just_once 2 days ago

I thought code was free now

  • JacobAsmuth 2 days ago

    Good ideas are expensive. Which is why he's blanket investing, to catch the winners.

    • just_once 2 days ago

      But why would they agree? Coding is free (or at least $200 a month)

dTal 2 days ago

Reminder that "$2 million worth of OpenAI tokens" is meaningless and codes for "as much access to OpenAI infrastructure as Sam Altman feels like letting you have".

  • interstice 2 days ago

    It could be at cost, but probably not

mawadev 2 days ago

Very odd shadow economy that is in the making here.

  • interstice 2 days ago

    Like sci-fi with currency based in kwh or life minutes but this time it's tokens

moogly 2 days ago

Sounds like they have an oversupply of these tokens.

  • sellmesoap 2 days ago

    It's only a token offer... I'll see myself out.

Rp8yXmdmr 2 days ago

> $2M in OpenAI tokens

How about real money or even Apple Gift cards?

phendrenad2 2 days ago

Maybe they can borrow a few OpenAI engineers too?

dbbk 2 days ago

No thanks

cyanydeez 2 days ago

so weve officially reached the gambling sddiction portion of the LLM show. good luck FOMO