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u1hcw9nxyesterday at 10:08 PM4 repliesview on HN

You would think the effect was the opposite. I think this is worse for OpenAI.

So far, the circular financing from Nvidia has been peanuts for the company. It's roughly equal to giving 5% discount on hardware, not a big deal when the profit margin is 70%. Trying to prop up new neoclouds and competition is a good idea.

As I understand it, the OpenAI investment was much bigger effective discount but still safe because Nvidia invests gradually in installments only when OpenAI invests in data centers: tit for tat. Maybe OpenAI wanted to get the money now and invest it later, as they seem to be running out of cash.


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embedding-shapeyesterday at 10:16 PM

> You would think the effect was the opposite. I think this is worse for OpenAI.

How do we know it wasn't? OpenAI isn't a publicly traded company, and I guess no one who dares writing anything here actually knows how the numbers look on the inside, so for what we know, it could very well have been worse for OpenAI than Nvidia.

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dktpyesterday at 10:58 PM

My best guess is that Nvidia is unhappy with how OpenAI is fishing for compute with its competitors (Jensen had some opinions on the AMD-OpenAI deal when it was announced). If this actually becomes a feasible reality, it gives OpenAI (and co) negotiating power - which is bad for Nvidia

Nvidia might have wanted more exclusivity/attachment. And OpenAI still seems to have no problem raising money. So maybe there was just a commitment mismatch

Pure speculation though

fsckboyyesterday at 11:49 PM

>It's roughly equal to giving 5% discount on hardware, not a big deal when the profit margin is 70%.

using your numbers, Nvidia didn't drop 70%, it's more on the order of the 5% so at least from that angle, the news narrative holds together superficially.

themafiayesterday at 11:04 PM

> the circular financing from Nvidia has been peanuts for the company.

Enron thought the same thing. Until they had a closer look at what their middle managers were actually doing to the books.

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