Investing in startups that use AI in their course of business would be one way to expand the surface area of innovation that would lead do that end.

I'd say money is cheap right now and fund managers would rather have people with information asymmetry invest their money, which OpenAI does via their API. I think it's a natural fit to invest in companies that use their API. This isn't a new idea, Stripe and Slack both do this.

YCombinator is a tech company whose business model is investing. Seems like OpenAI could be the same.

How is that different from a VC that invests in tech startups? What, exactly, is YC’s tech?

> they wonder, before clicking the reply button on a popular piece of YC tech

Nobody uses HN because it's an amazing piece of software.

Yeah we do. HN made a lot of intentional choices to avoid becoming a generic social media clone. There's a reason why nobody is replying with reaction GIFs in the comments or linking to rickrolls. HN is a unique piece of software that goes hand in hand with the moderation that augments it.

HN is actually an amazing piece of software in its own minimalistic way

By that definition any business that develops an app or website or forum software is a tech company.

Sounds an awful lot like WeWork trying to brand itself as a tech company.

The success of HN is from its moderation, not from its tech.

Are you calling Sam Altman a one trick pony? Quick list of his "tricks": - founded company, raised $40M - proved YC can scale - numerous strong individual investments (Humanyze, Routable) - CEO of OpenAI leading to $1B investment from Microsoft

If allocating capital well makes someone a one trick pony, then I think we need many more ponies in the world.

Even Sam Altman considers his own company to be a failure - you fail to mention they basically sold for as much as they raised so it wasn't a success for most (if any) investors.

Also I don't think Sam proved YC can scale, in fact I think it's the opposite and we just haven't had enough time to watch it play out. I certainly hold YC in lower regard than I used to, and I'm a YC alum (alternate account).

He is a successful investor, I can't deny that. But he hasn't proven anything with OpenAI yet. And I think anybody that actually followed OpenAI from the beginning is really disappointed in how "open" it really is. The fact that you point to fundraising as proof of success is so bizarre. By that logic WeWork should be your favorite company of the last decade.