Ask HN: If the models are so good, why doesn't OpenAI just start 100 companies?

	Ask HN: If the models are so good, why doesn't OpenAI just start 100 companies?
	645 points by ex-aws-dude 3 days ago \| 733 comments
	tl;dr: The post questions why frontier AI labs like OpenAI and Anthropic focus on selling tokens rather than building their own products on top of their models, especially as token prices decline and commoditize. The author suggests the application layer may be where the real money is, not the model utility layer.
	HN Discussion: ↓AI provides intelligence but companies need relationships, agency, and execution beyond what models offer ~OpenAI is already building products but needs token revenue now due to capital constraints ↑AI labs have already disrupted many industries and are moving up the stack cautiously ~Automating everything destroys the value they'd capture, making the application play economically self-defeating ↓LLMs have fundamental limitations (context management, agency, can't replace programmers) preventing autonomous company-building