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A nonbinding letter of intent in 2018? That is a limited downside unlimited upside kind of risk you take to fund extreme moon shots. Boom Supersonic did the sam
by dzink 3y ago
A nonbinding letter of intent in 2018? That is a limited downside unlimited upside kind of risk you take to fund extreme moon shots. Boom Supersonic did the same approach with United airlines, to fund a still undeveloped supersonic Airplane. A 1M investment like this is a hedge that has capped downside, restricted to Altman's personal money, and an infinite upside that gives an incentive to the founders to succeed. At the time the value of the investment is paper zero for Altman, but gives the founders, who were probably the most promising he has seen in the space, large help with fundraising, hiring, and credibility with future sales. OpenAI does not have to buy the chips unless they meet the criteria, In 2018 OpenAI was one of many startups plucking at a problem that seemed insurmountable. If you are trying to push into a problem and can't afford to do what Apple did to build both the hardware and software to solve it, you focus on the one and try to help the other however you can.
In WeWork, the CEO took a trademark that costs a couple of thousand dollars, and charged himself millions for it from company money - that's personal enrichment. Incubating a thing considered highly risky and expensive 5 years is not personal enrichment, its personal risk that helps more the likelihood of it being less impossible instead of a chance at enrichment from two companies you don't even know would be viable (OpenAI) 5 years from then.
- Angostura 3y agoYes - the 2018 date was buried, rather disingenuously, I think.
- 93po 3y agoAgreed, the headline is massively misleading. Journalism at its finest
- infecto 3y agoHope this makes it to the top. So much artificial outrage.
- cbsmith 3y agoSeems fitting that there'd be artificially generated outrage about generative AI. ;-)
- boeingUH60 3y agoMany people have sad, angry lives and are addicted to outrage to lash out at anything other than themselves…they just can’t help it like an alcoholic can’t abstain from alcohol.
- tempaccount420 3y agoReminds me of how people hate Elon Musk.
- calf 3y agoRisk does not automatically remove potential conflicts of interest or vertical integration appropriateness disputes. Your argument and comparison (yes, the WeWork example is obvious self-enrichment the way you say it) makes no sense to me.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 3y ago"A nonbinding letter of intent in 2018?" "OpenAI does not have to buy the chips unless they meet the criteria," The second sentence suggests if the chips meet the criteria then the LOI is binding. Even if, for example, there were other chips from other companies, in which Altman held no interest, that met the criteria. The phrase "have to buy the chips" suggests more than simply a requirement to negotiate in good faith. But if we cannot see the text of this LOI then we are all just speculating.
- dzink 3y agoI don’t know what the LOI states of every piece of fine print and I’m not affiliated with them in any way, but what we do know is that at IN 2018, the moment of that decision, the information available at the time was: The odds of success of that 1M investment and the chip company were closer to 0 than 100% The odds of success of openai in a competitive environment with massive monopolies who were building AI was closer to 0 than 100%. Trump was president. He was rattling the chains of every trade partner and China was threatening the most important chip-making places. Sam altman was co-chairman of OpenAI, not CEO, and still led YC. There could be plenty of other things about him to be concerned about, but this investment, with the information we have about that time, is not. Especially because you don’t get AI without chips.