OpenAI's Customer List - 1999 Again?
OpenAI’s top 30 customer list (as measured by tokens processed) reminds me of 1999 in that the top 30 are primarily startups. Having startups serve as your underpinning is a risky place to be.
What will happen when the venture capital market pauses and slows the pace of AI investment? Many of these startups will go away. I can promise you that PwC (reportedly OpenAI’s largest customer by revenue) is not chewing through 1 Trillion-plus tokens. Blue Chip companies won’t pick up the API usage slack.
As one commenter wrote, “you’ve got a bunch of AI services companies purchasing AI services from AI services companies”.
Similarly, you’ve got a web of companies all spending money with one another in an effort to boost stock valuations.
Not only is there an AI valuation bubble, but an AI economic bubble where these companies trade with one another in an effort to maintain inflated valuations. Feels like a lot of self-dealing.
Meanwhile, what is the rest of the world doing? What is true end-user demand?