Ask HN: Is Hacker News showing me ads?

Yes, but it is only available to YC companies.

From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

> Another kind of job ad is reserved for YC-funded startups. These appear on the front page, but are not stories: they have no vote arrows, points, or comments. They begin part-way down, then fall steadily, and only one should be on the front page at a time.

In a way... Yes. https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs

It's also described plainly in the FAQ https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

No conspiracy here.

There's a lot of links here that works as advertising. Likely majority of.