Sam Altman Offers $2M in OpenAI Tokens to Every YC Startup for Equity — $800M Total Compute Play

TechCrunch·high signal

At a closed-door Y Combinator event on May 20, Sam Altman offered $2 million in OpenAI API tokens to every startup in YC's Spring 2026 batch via uncapped SAFEs, amounting to roughly $800M in compute for ~2% equity across 400 startups. The move eliminates startups' biggest early cost (AI infrastructure) while locking them into the OpenAI ecosystem. Critics flagged founder control and vendor lock-in concerns; supporters see it as the new standard for AI-native startup investment.