Sam Altman makes ‘mic drop’ offer to every Y Combinator startup
Sam Altman makes ‘mic drop’ offer to every Y Combinator startup
山姆·奥特曼向所有 Y Combinator 初创公司抛出“重磅炸弹”
During a Y Combinator event on Tuesday night, Sam Altman had what YC partner Tyler Bosmeny called a “mic drop moment.” Altman offered $2 million worth of OpenAI tokens to every startup in the current class in exchange for equity in the startup. In other words, he promised that OpenAI would invest in the whole class, not with cash but with an allotment of AI tokens that startups can use to build their products. 在周二晚间的一场 Y Combinator 活动中，山姆·奥特曼（Sam Altman）上演了被 YC 合伙人泰勒·博斯梅尼（Tyler Bosmeny）称为“重磅炸弹”（mic drop）的时刻。奥特曼向当前这一届的所有初创公司提供了价值 200 万美元的 OpenAI 代币，以换取这些公司的股权。换句话说，他承诺 OpenAI 将投资整个班级，投资方式不是现金，而是分配可供初创公司用于构建产品的 AI 代币。
i am excited to see what will happen with tokenmaxxing startups, both for how they work internally and the products they can build.openai offered to invest $2M in tokens into every startup in the current yc batch.happy building! https://t.co/YSHYJoutuf— Sam Altman (@sama) May 20, 2026 “我很期待看到这些‘代币最大化’（tokenmaxxing）的初创公司会发生什么，无论是从它们内部运作方式，还是从它们能构建的产品来看。OpenAI 提议向当前 YC 批次中的每家初创公司投资 200 万美元的代币。祝大家开发顺利！”—— 山姆·奥特曼 (@sama) 2026年5月20日
Y Combinator has about 169 startups in this cohort, according to its directory. As for how much equity each startup can expect to give up, that can’t be determined at the time it signs the deal. It will depend on how much the startup is worth when it raises its first priced round — a funding round in which investors assign the company a formal valuation. 根据名录显示，Y Combinator 本期共有约 169 家初创公司。至于每家初创公司需要出让多少股权，在签署协议时无法确定。这将取决于初创公司在进行首轮定价融资（即投资者为公司设定正式估值的融资轮次）时的估值。
Y Combinator managing director Jared Friedman tells TechCrunch that the deal will be offered as an “uncapped SAFE,” meaning, “it will convert in the next priced round, which is typically the Series A,” he said. A SAFE is YC’s standard agreement structure for its early-stage companies that raise money before their first “priced” rounds with valuations involved. An uncapped SAFE doesn’t set a ceiling on that valuation, which can benefit founders because the higher the valuation at conversion, the smaller the slice of the company the investor receives. Y Combinator 总经理贾里德·弗里德曼（Jared Friedman）告诉 TechCrunch，该交易将以“无上限 SAFE”（uncapped SAFE）的形式提供，这意味着“它将在下一轮定价融资中转换，通常是 A 轮融资，”他说。SAFE 是 YC 为其早期公司提供的标准协议结构，用于在进行涉及估值的首轮“定价”融资之前筹集资金。无上限 SAFE 不会为估值设定上限，这对创始人有利，因为转换时的估值越高，投资者获得的股份比例就越小。
We’ve seen some discussion on X that this deal could amount to OpenAI holding about 2% equity should a startup hit a $100 million valuation, though without seeing the actual terms, we can’t verify that. For OpenAI, the deal works on two levels. Obviously, it gains equity in this crop of early-stage companies, meaning it profits if they succeed. But it also encourages them to build their business on and with OpenAI. Whether this locks them in for the long term or not, it does mean that they won’t default to OpenAI’s competitors, like Anthropic’s Claude Code. 我们在 X（原推特）上看到一些讨论称，如果一家初创公司达到 1 亿美元的估值，这笔交易可能意味着 OpenAI 持有约 2% 的股权，尽管在没有看到实际条款的情况下，我们无法核实这一点。对于 OpenAI 来说，这笔交易在两个层面上发挥作用。显然，它获得了这批早期公司的股权，这意味着如果它们成功，OpenAI 就能获利。但这也鼓励它们在 OpenAI 的基础上并利用 OpenAI 构建业务。无论这是否会长期锁定它们，这确实意味着它们不会默认转向 OpenAI 的竞争对手，例如 Anthropic 的 Claude Code。
The tokens themselves may sweeten the deal further: As inference costs continue to fall, what OpenAI is giving away today could cost it very little to produce tomorrow — making the equity it receives in return look increasingly cheap. 代币本身可能会让这笔交易更具吸引力：随着推理成本持续下降，OpenAI 今天赠送的东西在明天生产的成本可能非常低——这使得它所获得的股权回报看起来越来越划算。
Unsurprisingly, there’s already plenty of commentary on X on why this is, and isn’t a good deal for startups. The pro-deal folks believe the deal helps startups eliminate one of their biggest costs — AI infrastructure bills, which can spiral fast and consume a disproportionate share of an early-stage startup’s budget at a time when money, typically, is already scarce. 不出所料，X 上已经有很多关于这笔交易对初创公司为何有利、为何不利的评论。支持者认为，这笔交易有助于初创公司消除最大的成本之一——AI 基础设施账单，这些账单可能会迅速膨胀，并在资金通常本就匮乏的早期阶段，消耗掉初创公司预算中不成比例的份额。
The buyer-beware folks have other warnings. Seed investor Jason Calacanis — who has his own competing accelerator and fund — went for the be-afraid-of-Big-Tech warning. “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. This is the classic platform playbook — be careful, founders!” he posted. 持谨慎态度的观察者则有其他警告。种子轮投资者杰森·卡拉卡尼斯（Jason Calacanis）——他自己也拥有竞争性的加速器和基金——发出了“警惕大科技公司”的警告。他发帖称：“如果你接受这些代币，OpenAI 有很大可能研究你的初创公司到底在做什么，复制你的创意，并将你的应用纳入他们的免费产品中。这是典型的平台套路——创始人要小心了！”
The fear that OpenAI and Anthropic could swallow every good AI startup idea is real. The truth is, should OpenAI want to do that, it can, even when startups simply pay OpenAI for the tokens. By taking an equity stake, OpenAI may have more incentive for the startup’s success, not less. Plus, as the former head of Y Combinator and a recurring guest speaker, Altman has as much access to every cohort and its ideas as he wants, deal or not. 人们担心 OpenAI 和 Anthropic 可能吞噬每一个好的 AI 初创创意，这种担忧是真实的。事实是，如果 OpenAI 想这样做，即使初创公司只是付费购买代币，它也能做到。通过持有股权，OpenAI 反而可能更有动力去促成初创公司的成功，而不是相反。此外，作为 Y Combinator 的前负责人和常客演讲嘉宾，无论是否有这笔交易，奥特曼都能随心所欲地接触到每一届学员及其创意。
The bigger question for this YC batch is whether a budget of tokens from a single AI player is worth giving up additional equity. Y Combinator already takes a 7% stake for a $500,000 cash investment in its standard deal. In exchange, startups get access to YC’s powerful Silicon Valley network of VCs, potential customers, and other founders. But equity is also precious for startups. Seed investors frequently take 20% or so, too. And startups need equity as compensation for their early employees. The bigger danger is that a startup will blow through its OpenAI token budget without enough to show for it, having surrendered equity in the process. Still, that may be better than paying for the tokens with cash, an even scarcer resource at that stage. 对于本届 YC 学员来说，更大的问题是，从单一 AI 厂商那里获得代币预算是否值得额外出让股权。在标准协议中，Y Combinator 已经以 50 万美元的现金投资换取了 7% 的股份。作为交换，初创公司可以进入 YC 强大的硅谷网络，接触到风险投资人、潜在客户和其他创始人。但股权对初创公司来说同样珍贵。种子轮投资者通常也会拿走 20% 左右的股份。而且初创公司需要股权作为早期员工的薪酬。更大的危险在于，初创公司在耗尽 OpenAI 代币预算后却没能拿出足够的成果，却在过程中出让了股权。不过，这可能仍然比用现金购买代币要好，因为现金在那个阶段是更为稀缺的资源。