Is it "circular financing" when american Honda finance corporation gives you a loan on your new civic?

Probably not but if they granted buyers with no income 0% interest for 20 years then yeah? Sales would grow through the roof. iow it can be essentially fraudulent, depending on the quality of the loans.

If they’re doing it at the scale of subsidizing or offering favorable credit to businesses, like rental car fleets?

Sure, that’s a comparison.

Right, the snag is not that OpenAI and friends haven’t delivered the moon: it’s that they need to deliver at least another ten moons or so to in order to fulfil all of their promises and commitments.