Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Invest $2 Million In Tokens For Each YC Startup

Sam Altman said OpenAI will invest $2 million in tokens into every startup in the current Y Combinator batch, offering the tokens in exchange for equity in the startups.

“Do you pepper your prompts on ChatGPT with friendly 'hello', 'please', and 'thank you', even though you know you're addressing an artificial intelligence system”

Numerama

TechCrunch reports that during a Y Combinator event on Tuesday night, Altman made what YC partner Tyler Bosmeny called a “mic drop moment,” and offered $2 million worth of OpenAI tokens to every startup in the current class.

Numerama

TechCrunch adds that Y Combinator has about 169 startups in this cohort, and that the deal will be offered as an “uncapped SAFE,” which “will convert in the next priced round, which is typically the Series A,” according to Y Combinator managing director Jared Friedman.

The Traders Union account says Altman also shared his interest in how so-called tokenmaxxing startups will operate internally and what products they may develop, while noting that “The tweet was deleted by the author. But we saved everything 🙂.”

TechCrunch says the equity each startup can expect to give up “can’t be determined at the time it signs the deal,” because it will depend on how much the startup is worth when it raises its first priced round.

Jared Friedman told TechCrunch the deal will be offered as an “uncapped SAFE,” meaning it “will convert in the next priced round, which is typically the Series A,” with no ceiling on the valuation.

TechCrunch

Seed investor Jason Calacanis warned on X that “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.”

TechCrunch frames the counterpoint as well, saying the deal encourages startups to build their business on and with OpenAI and that it means they “won’t default to OpenAI’s competitors, like Anthropic’s Claude Code.”

Separately, Numerama reports that Sam Altman addressed a user question about how much OpenAI has lost in electricity costs because people say “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT.

“Traders Union All News Market Voices OpenAI invests $2 million in tokens For those who love risk”

Traders Union

Numerama says Altman’s answer is “highly approximate,” estimating the expense in the tens of millions of dollars, while also describing how longer prompts can increase work for the chatbot.

Numerama explains that OpenAI’s large language models process text via tokenization, and it gives an example where the query “What is the area of France, including its overseas territories?” becomes 74 characters and 19 tokens, but a more polite version becomes 114 characters and 31 tokens.

Numerama also quotes Microsoft’s Kurtis Beavers, saying “Using polite language sets the tone of the response,” and adds that politeness could influence how effectively the chatbot works, even as it notes the tens of millions figure must be weighed against platform traffic like “300 million internet users use the service each week.”