Sam Altman is giving OpenAI tokens in exchange for equity in YC Companies

Finally! Startup equity was too simple... Now we can have founders trade part of their company for tokens in another company, whose valuation depends on everyone believing the tokens will someday be worth money. Finance is healing!

> Some business leaders warned startups to take the offer with a grain of salt. Jason Calacanis, an investor and cohost of the All In podcast, described Altman’s move as “the classic platform playbook,” and advised founders 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.”

Y'know, this is the kind of distrust-of-the-powerful cynicism I can get behind.

My only question is whether a token-for-equity deal would make this risk more likely than for any other startup buying services in a regular way.

Does the equity-stake allow OpenAI access to information that makes it easier to choose victims or execute the copying?

Does this mean they're effectively a PE firm?