# Why the AI Business Model Is Cracking and How Crypto Could Help Fix It

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/unchained-5662698/why-the-ai-business-model-is-cracking-and-how-crypto-could-help-fix-it
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/unchained-5662698/why-the-ai-business-model-is-cracking-and-how-crypto-could-help-fix-it.md
Podcast: [Unchained](https://stenobird.com/podcast/unchained-5662698)
Published: 2026-06-12T16:12:00+00:00
Episode link: https://pdrl.fm/98e0b1/traffic.megaphone.fm/LSHML3811437742.mp3
Audio file: https://pdrl.fm/98e0b1/traffic.megaphone.fm/LSHML3811437742.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/unchained-5662698/episodes/why-the-ai-business-model-is-cracking-and-how-crypto-could-help-fix-it
Duration seconds: 1943

## Resource

OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceXand the AI IPO cycle face a structural problem: a cheap, capable open source exit is already drawing enterprise users away before either company goes public. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsor! ⁠Fidelity⁠: Fidelity has been building in crypto and DeFi since 2014 — now they're hiring. Explore career opportunities at one of the most forward-thinking names in finance here: ⁠crypto.fidelitycareers.com⁠. ⁠Cape⁠: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). ======================================================== A viral tweet by Tom Shaughnessy, founding partner of Delphi Ventures, identified the most basic way AI could blow up: a 40x subsidy gap between consumer AI subscriptions and enterprise API costs quietly pushing businesses toward open source inference providers at 1% of the price. Citadel Securities published a near-identical thesis shortly after. Shaughnessy joins Laura Shin to map the implications for the AI IPO wave, starting with SpaceX. Low floats and passive index demand should lift these stocks out of the gate, but public market disclosures will force OpenAI and Anthropic to reveal payback periods, margins, and subscriber numbers for the first time. He also argues OpenAI's reported price cuts target Anthropic's growth metrics before the IPO, not user demand. The episode also covers the China model wildcard, whether AI model restrictions amount to big brother fearmongering, and whether crypto's tools for capital formation could keep the AGI flywheel from stal…

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## Transcript

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