Author: MarsTomato

OpenAI just launched a $10 billion company whose SOLE mission is to “push” businesses to adopt AI. And they’re literally guaranteeing investors a 17.5% annualized return to do it. It’s called “The Deployment Company.” OpenAI finalized it yesterday with 19 investors, including TPG, SoftBank, Bain Capital, Brookfield, and Advent International.

Here’s the structure: OpenAI is putting in $1.5 billion. Private equity funds are putting in $4 billion. In return, these funds are opening up their 2,000+ portfolio companies with relevant customer bases for OpenAI’s products. OpenAI then deploys entire teams of engineers directly inside these companies—similar to Palantir—to integrate its tools into day-to-day operations.

And here’s the big red flag in the whole story: OpenAI is guaranteeing these funds a 17.5% annualized return for five years. This means that even if the companies in the portfolio don’t want the AI, don’t need it, or don’t get any value from it, OpenAI still has to pay them. Think about what that means for a second: OpenAI is so desperate for corporate adoption that it’s paying Wall Street to “push” its product into thousands of businesses. They’ve turned private equity funds into a distribution cartel with a guaranteed commission.

This has never happened before in enterprise software. No software company in history has guaranteed above-market returns to financial backers just to install their product. And it gets even crazier: Just minutes after OpenAI’s announcement, Anthropic announced its own version. A $1.5 billion joint venture with Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, and Hellman & Friedman.

Same scenario. Two companies with a combined private valuation of over $1 TRILLION have come to the same conclusion on the same day: organic demand for their products isn’t growing fast enough. If enterprises were lining up to buy AI themselves, they wouldn’t have to “bribe” private equity funds with guaranteed returns to “stuff” it into their portfolios. They would just sell it normally—like every other software company in history. But they can’t. Because the gap between what AI companies promise and what enterprises actually experience is still huge. OpenAI’s COO, Brad Lightcup, just took on a new role specifically to lead this “push.” They’ve also signed “Frontier Alliances” with major consulting firms to deploy AI through professional services.

Every move they make screams the same thing: We have a demand problem. And all of this is happening right before OpenAI tries to go public for $850 billion. If they can show Wall Street that 2,000+ companies “use OpenAI products” through this PE channel, they’ll be inflating their corporate metrics right before the IPO. It doesn’t matter if the companies really need it or if it creates real value. All that matters is the number on the S-1.

This is the AI ​​playbook entering its most dangerous phase. The technology is real, but the business model is driven by financial tricks, guaranteed returns, and distribution deals that look more like a pharmaceutical company paying doctors to prescribe its medicine than a software company winning quality customers.

Both OpenAI and Anthropic admitted it.

Well, the first cracks in the AI ​​economy are now becoming visible. A couple of significant events involving Anthropic and Microsoft have taken place over the last few weeks—if you follow the industry, you’ll find this interesting.

So, here’s the breakdown:

In marketing, there is a concept known as the “painted door test.” It involves gauging market reaction without actually altering the product itself.

You might add a button for a new feature, but when clicked, it merely displays a message stating that the feature is “coming soon.” Crucially, however, you track exactly how many times that button gets clicked.

Anthropic did something similar in April 2026. Two percent of their paying users—those on the $20/month plan—saw a notification stating that Claude Code (their most in-demand product) would henceforth be available exclusively on the “Max” tier, priced at $100/month.

A number of users actually upgraded to the more expensive subscription, unaware that the whole thing was merely a test.
Ultimately, due to the public outcry, Anthropic reverted everything to its original state; however, the company’s pockets are clearly not bottomless. Maintaining powerful models—such as Opus 4.7—comes at a very steep cost.

Now, let’s turn our attention to Microsoft, which recently announced that, effective June 1, 2026, GitHub Copilot will be switching to a token-based pricing model.
Simply put, the cost of a session will now depend on the computational power of the underlying model being utilized, rather than on the sheer number of queries submitted. Not all queries are created equal anymore.

Personally, I find this approach logical—though many developers beg to differ, largely because the previous pricing tiers were incredibly wallet-friendly. (Heh.)

Microsoft revealed that their weekly operational costs for supporting Copilot have doubled since the beginning of 2026 and continue to skyrocket. The company has been compelled to take action—even though, unlike Anthropic, Microsoft is a fundamentally profitable enterprise with ample financial reserves and liquidity to draw upon. Interestingly, Google currently finds itself in a winning position; the company invests over $100 billion annually in AI while remaining profitable—it doesn’t have to “dance” for investors just to secure new funding rounds, unlike OpenAI or Anthropic.

Oh, and by the way: a couple of weeks ago, OpenAI raised $120 billion in investment—capital that will last them only 18 to 24 months, as they are burning through $5–7 billion per month at their current operational loads.
This explains the aggressive marketing tactics employed by AI companies—including their constant claims that programmers are no longer needed, and so forth. Their primary objective is to attract capital, not merely to sell a product.
Yes, tokens are indeed ceasing to be free. And this marks just the beginning of the AI ​​industry’s transition toward realistic pricing models.

Cherish this moment, friends: right now, accessing high-level artificial intelligence is cheaper than it has likely ever been—or ever will be—in human history.

Furthermore, I would advise keeping an eye on projects focused on the decentralization of AI—initiatives that are actively pushing back against the monopolies that are already beginning to emerge. And if you were just thinking, “But what about the Chinese? They have free models! They’ll save us all!”—ho-ho, don’t be so naive!

I’m willing to bet that this year will be the very last year we see large-scale, high-performance open-source AI models coming out of China.

That’s the situation, folks: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Cd88hppbC/