GoKawiilDuring 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.
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
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.
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.
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