Mercury.ai

OpenAI Offers $2M API Credits to YC Startups

OpenAI is offering roughly 169 startups in Y Combinator’s Spring 2026 batch $2 million each in API credits via an uncapped SAFE — roughly $338 million at retail prices — in exchange for equity that converts at the next priced round. The deal pays OpenAI in usage (inference) credits rather than cash, giving the company product-level visibility into cohort-scale developer activity and potential ecosystem lock-in. The newsletter also covers Revolut’s moves: a new private banking arm targeting clients with £500,000+ in deposits, FCA approval for its trading subsidiary to offer leveraged products and advisory services, and an internal May 15 memo naming Revolut Business the company’s top strategic priority backed with hiring and referral incentives. Both stories highlight strategic plays to capture high-value customers and long-term product stickiness.

SpaceX $1.75T IPO: Uninvestable?

SpaceX filed an S-1 as part of a wave of expected AI-related public listings, joining reports that OpenAI and Anthropic are also preparing IPOs. The filing sketches an expansive, moonshot strategy and proposes raising roughly $75 billion at a $1.75 trillion valuation while disclosing 2025 revenue of about $18.7 billion and losses near $4.9 billion after the xAI merger. Elon Musk would retain concentrated control with roughly 85.1% of voting shares. The prospectus claims an aggregated TAM of $28.5 trillion (with $26.5 trillion attributed to AI). The S-1 also details third-party commercial arrangements including Anthropic’s Colossus compute deal — reportedly about $1.25 billion per month through May 2029. The filing lists major venture stakeholders (Founders Fund, Sequoia, Valor, Gigafund) and plans for a small initial float with mechanisms to expand supply post-IPO. Publication date: 2026-05-22.

Khosla Ventures leads $10M seed for Ian Crosby's Synthetic

Khosla Ventures led a $10 million Seed round for Synthetic, a startup founded by Ian Crosby that aims to build a fully autonomous AI bookkeeper capable of generating accrual-based financials without human accountants. The product is still in design and Crosby acknowledges current foundational models may not yet be fully capable; he says the company can wait while models improve. Investors in the round include Basis Set Ventures and Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke. The article notes Crosby's controversial history: his prior company, Bench, shut down in 2024 after management changes and was later acquired; Crosby was removed by Bench's board in 2021. Khosla partner Jon Chu said he backed Crosby despite the founder's past, citing belief in founder growth and learning from subsequent roles Crosby held at Shopify and other startups.