AI giants are engaged in a free computing power competition, with startups emerging as the biggest winners
On July 7th, Jinshi Data reported that, according to The Wall Street Journal, founders of Silicon Valley startups are experiencing a surge in computing credits, with AI model suppliers fiercely competing for new enterprise clients. The AI programming company Cursor, acquired by Elon Musk's SpaceX, has launched a 75% discount until July 5th. The sales teams of OpenAI and Anthropic are offering extremely generous terms. Some founders have indicated that their fundraising plans have been delayed as a result, and some are even able to negotiate between AI companies. The cloud computing and token credits offered by multiple companies sometimes total over $3 million—equivalent to the median level of seed funding in the U.S. Google Cloud provides some startups with up to $500,000 in cloud credits and early access to the Gemini model, while Microsoft and AWS also offer similar incentives. This battle for clients comes as AI companies seek sustainable revenue, hoping to lock in startup customers early and make their tools central to long-term business development
