• dude250711 2 days ago |
    Adding more layers to circular investments.
  • bigbuppo 2 days ago |
    Hey, it's the thing I said was going to happen. Thank's for taking my suggestion, Sam.
  • jonahbenton 2 days ago |
    The desperation is strong in this one
  • 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.
  • KHRZ 2 days ago |
    If that's in API price, they may be better of with the subscription.
  • cyanydeez 2 days ago |
    so weve officially reached the gambling sddiction portion of the LLM show. good luck FOMO
  • phendrenad2 2 days ago |
    Maybe they can borrow a few OpenAI engineers too?
  • 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 a day ago |
        But why would they agree? Coding is free (or at least $200 a month)
  • shimman 2 days ago |
    What a great way to boost usage before an IPO. Definitely not scammy behavior!
  • 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 a day ago |
      It's just a little casual grooming for customers to prey on, is all.
    • red-iron-pine 21 hours 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 a day 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 20 hours 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 14 hours ago |
        > Bogo sort, Canary, and Rubber-Ducking come to mind

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

  • 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?

  • mawadev a day ago |
    Very odd shadow economy that is in the making here.
    • interstice a day ago |
      Like sci-fi with currency based in kwh or life minutes but this time it's tokens
  • dTal a day 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 a day ago |
      It could be at cost, but probably not
  • blitzar a day ago |
    Is the "mic drop" in the headline refering to how bad a deal this is for any startup that takes it?
  • xg15 a day ago |
    Is the term "tokenmaxxing" now really used unironically and as a desirable thing?
  • dbbk a day ago |
    No thanks
  • Rp8yXmdmr a day ago |
    > $2M in OpenAI tokens

    How about real money or even Apple Gift cards?