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How OpenAI uses complex and circular deals to fuel its multibillion-dollar rise

(www.nytimes.com)
387 points reaperducer | 4 comments | 31 Oct 25 13:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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throwaway106382 ◴[31 Oct 25 14:11 UTC] No.45772180[source]▶
Isn't paying a company to dig a hole who then pays you the same amount to fill said hole illegal?
replies(6): >>45772199 #>>45772201 #>>45772231 #>>45772337 #>>45772576 #>>45772818 #
1. TZubiri ◴[31 Oct 25 14:15 UTC] No.45772231[source]▶
Seems like a net loss due to transactional costs.
replies(2): >>45772356 #>>45772470 #
2. klustregrif ◴[31 Oct 25 14:29 UTC] No.45772356[source]▶
The increase in value of the companies outweighs the transactional costs and then you borrow against the value of the company and make new circular deals. It works really well for a very long time and then at some point it doesn’t. The trick of the game is to get big corps involved and key decision makers so that the government bails out everyone in the end.
replies(1): >>45772571 #
3. throwaway106382 ◴[31 Oct 25 14:41 UTC] No.45772470[source]▶
They are banking on:

* stock prices increasing more than the non-existent money being burnt

* they are now too big to fail - turn on the real money printers and feed it directly into their bank accounts so the Chinese/Russians/Iranians/Boogeymen don't kill us all

4. automatic6131 ◴[31 Oct 25 14:49 UTC] No.45772571[source]▶
> The trick of the game is to get big corps involved and key decision makers so that the government bails out everyone in the end.

This is bad. We should not shrug our shoulders and go "Oh ho, this is how the game is played" as though we can substitute cynicism for wisdom. We should say "this is bad, this is a moral hazard, and we should imprison and impoverish those who keep trying it".

Or we'll get more.