The Wall Street Journal reports AI leaders are offering large free compute and API/token credits to capture startup share; some startups say they have received more than $3m in combined cloud and token credits, roughly equivalent to a US median seed round. OpenAI: Y Combinator startups offered $500k in free token credits with no equity; startups may be offered an additional $1.5m token credit in exchange for equity (OpenAI previously ran a $2m-for-equity offer). OpenAI is also offering bulk disc

The Wall Street Journal reports AI leaders are offering large free compute and API/token credits to capture startup share; some startups say they have received more than $3m in combined cloud and token credits, roughly equivalent to a US median seed round. OpenAI: Y Combinator startups offered $500k in free token credits with no equity; startups may be offered an additional $1.5m token credit in exchange for equity (OpenAI previously ran a $2m-for-equity offer). OpenAI is also offering bulk discounts to promote Codex and markets ChatGPT Pro 20x at $200/month with up to about $14k of API token usage. Anthropic: Y Combinator startups now receive $500k in free API credits with no equity (previously $30k); the firm is running enterprise promotions and one‑off bonuses. Claude Max priced at $200/month with up to about $8k of API token consumption. Google: up to $500k in cloud credits, Gemini early access and DeepMind engineering support for startups. Microsoft and Amazon Web Services: both extend startup-specific offers including cloud resources and technical support. Cursor: offering a 75% discount as of July 5.