Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: The Perfect AI Startup

Sept. 29, 2025, 6:18 PM UTC

Thinking Machines

If you run a big artificial intelligence lab in 2025, your company has two important sources of value:


  1. Presumably you are building some sort of AI thing. Probably that thing (1) loses a lot of money now but (2) has some plausible path to making a gajillion dollars eventually. You are in the business of burning a lot of investor cash to build God, which would be valuable if you succeed.
  2. You employ a lot of AI researchers, and their market value is, what, at least $10 million each? Much more, if they’re good?

The second point is not ...

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