Compute for Equity BETA
How AI gets paid for — explained simply
Big AI companies need huge amounts of computer power. Instead of paying only with cash, they trade away a slice of who owns them. Here are 20 real deals — simple enough for anyone to understand.
A · Clouds: give computer power, get ownership
Microsoft ↔ OpenAI
Microsoft gave OpenAI mountains of computer power instead of cash — and now owns about a quarter of OpenAI.
Amazon ↔ Anthropic
Amazon lets Anthropic use its computers for years, and owns a piece of Anthropic in return.
Google ↔ Anthropic
Google hands Anthropic up to a million special AI chips, and owns a slice of the company.
Microsoft + Nvidia ↔ Anthropic
Microsoft and Nvidia put money into Anthropic, which promises to use their computers.
B · Chip makers: invest so they sell more chips
Nvidia ↔ OpenAI
As OpenAI switches on more Nvidia-powered data centers, Nvidia invests more and gets a small slice of OpenAI.
Nvidia ↔ xAI
A special money-box company buys Nvidia chips and rents them to Elon's xAI; Nvidia owns part of that money-box.
Nvidia ↔ Nebius
Nvidia buys a slice of a cloud company that will run lots of Nvidia chips.
Nvidia ↔ CoreWeave
Nvidia owns part of CoreWeave and even promises to buy back chips no one rents.
C · The reverse: AI buyers get ownership of their supplier
OpenAI ↔ AMD
AMD said: use enough of our chips and OpenAI can earn up to 10% of AMD — paying for chips with ownership.
OpenAI ↔ CoreWeave
OpenAI rents CoreWeave's computers for years and also gets to own a little piece of CoreWeave.
G42 ↔ Cerebras
Abu Dhabi's G42 buys chips from Cerebras and also buys a piece of Cerebras itself.
D · Countries & mega-deals: trading at nation scale
Stargate (OpenAI · Oracle · SoftBank · MGX)
Four giants pool 500 billion dollars to build huge "computer cities" for OpenAI.
Oracle ↔ OpenAI
Oracle promises OpenAI 300 billion dollars of computer power over five years.
SoftBank ↔ OpenAI
SoftBank puts 40 billion dollars into OpenAI, much of it to buy computer power.
Microsoft ↔ G42
Microsoft buys a piece of Abu Dhabi's G42, and G42 moves onto Microsoft's cloud.
HUMAIN (Saudi) ↔ AMD
Saudi Arabia and AMD team up to build data centers, and AMD gets a share in a Saudi fund.
HUMAIN ↔ Nvidia & Qualcomm
Saudi Arabia uses its cheap energy to power giant new AI computers from Nvidia and Qualcomm.
E · Everyday version: free computer-credits
Nebius ↔ Meta
Nebius promises Meta years of computer power — a deal so big it becomes valuable like an asset.
Cloud startup credits
Big clouds give startups free computer-credits to get them started early.
Nvidia's portfolio
Nvidia has bought small pieces of around 170 AI companies — turning chip sales into ownership everywhere.
What we make easy
Today only the giants can make these trades, with armies of bankers and lawyers. Compute for Equity turns it into a simple, fair, regulated marketplace — so any AI startup, datacenter or energy producer can trade energy and compute for ownership, safely.
Figures are as publicly reported and include deals at various stages (some are letters of intent, not yet final). Illustrative context, not investment advice. Detailed sources: data-room/cases.md.