On Tuesday, May 20, 2026, Sam Altman told a Y Combinator audience that OpenAI would invest $2 million worth of API tokens into every startup in the current YC batch, in exchange for equity. YC's Spring 2026 directory lists about 169 companies — roughly $338 million of inference, paid as credits rather than cash.
TL;DR
OpenAI gets equity in ~169 YC startups; each startup gets $2M of OpenAI tokens to burn through.
The structure is an uncapped SAFE — no valuation ceiling, converts at the next priced round.
The platform incentive is the real story. Tokens are easy to give away. Default behavior in the cohort is what OpenAI is actually buying.
