<![CDATA[In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.”]]>In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.”

But I want to know: if we had $200B in, say, $100 notes, and we literally set them on fire:

  • would it dispose of the money faster? How long would it take?
  • would the impact on the environment be worse or less bad?

I gotta think there is someone on the with the wherewithal to figure this out. Surely if we boost this, it will nerdsnipe the right person and we will learn the answer.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/698866c9-fb68-4bef-9d94-0a30d6166319/in-his-latest-pivot-to-ai-openai-faces-cash-crunch-in-2026-as-bills-come-due-@davidgerard-accurately-says-openai-works-by-setting-as-much-money-as-it-can-on-fire-as-fast-as-possible.RSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 02:12:41 GMTThu, 30 Apr 2026 22:28:56 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 11:36:59 GMT]]>@paco @davidgerard Wouldn’t call it nerdsnipe. More like nerd carpet bombing

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/ap/users/116193819193015943/statuses/116499114867071822https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://infosec.exchange/ap/users/116193819193015943/statuses/116499114867071822Fri, 01 May 2026 11:36:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 11:02:28 GMT]]>@stufromoz @paco @davidgerard @briankrebs Can’t just pop them into a top loader and expect them the shred like a tissue in your jeans pocket]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.bsdlab.au/objects/00838e4a-fa91-4118-89f6-235ce371d59bhttps://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.bsdlab.au/objects/00838e4a-fa91-4118-89f6-235ce371d59bFri, 01 May 2026 11:02:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 10:41:26 GMT]]>@michael_w_busch @diazona @paco I looked up the capacity of my local incinerator (officially called the "Dublin waste to energy facility") and it says they handle 600,000 tonnes a year.

So the 2000 tonnes of bills would only last a day or so.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mas.to/users/azog/statuses/116498896393265357https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mas.to/users/azog/statuses/116498896393265357Fri, 01 May 2026 10:41:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 10:25:02 GMT]]>@paco @davidgerard
Closest test run would be the KLF https://youtu.be/21nhIZ9QF80?si=v6R5hpfydU0G_q_S

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/WilliamHeath/statuses/116498831907324898https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/WilliamHeath/statuses/116498831907324898Fri, 01 May 2026 10:25:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 10:22:09 GMT]]>@paco @davidgerard burning the cache would have saved a lot of energy wasted and would mean we can have a swimming pool in the summer as my water would not have been used in the local data center...

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.community/users/ivolimmen/statuses/116498820623718328https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.community/users/ivolimmen/statuses/116498820623718328Fri, 01 May 2026 10:22:09 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 10:20:04 GMT]]>@paco @davidgerard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Quid

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.secret-wg.org/users/julf/statuses/116498812402376052https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://social.secret-wg.org/users/julf/statuses/116498812402376052Fri, 01 May 2026 10:20:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 10:03:58 GMT]]>@dpnash @revk @paco @davidgerard Surely the people to ask are the KLF (or K Foundation)

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K Foundation Burn a Million Quid - Wikipedia

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(en.wikipedia.org)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://bluetoot.hardill.me.uk/users/ben/statuses/116498749085770411https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://bluetoot.hardill.me.uk/users/ben/statuses/116498749085770411Fri, 01 May 2026 10:03:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 08:56:59 GMT]]>@paco @davidgerard And yes, this was just a calculation on a lazy day and I may have made tons of little errors. Somewhen in the middle I had a version that confused minutes and days.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sueden.social/users/muellerwhh/statuses/116498485737463112https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sueden.social/users/muellerwhh/statuses/116498485737463112Fri, 01 May 2026 08:56:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 08:54:59 GMT]]>@paco @davidgerard However, for the fun of it, let us assume that a dollar bill takes 2 minutes to burn. Then burning once around the world would take 975 years!

So burning 7800 times that one after another would take 7.5 million years. So, to put that in perspective, if I can believe my understanding of Wikipedia, 7.5 million years ago Wolves were state of the art, and no-one talked about monkeys.

So yes, if you don't want to burn the money on a heap, it will be slow compared to OpenAI.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sueden.social/users/muellerwhh/statuses/116498477867600787https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sueden.social/users/muellerwhh/statuses/116498477867600787Fri, 01 May 2026 08:54:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 08:45:18 GMT]]>@paco @davidgerard Depends if you burn them in parallel or not and it depends on the oxigen supply. If you would burn this as one big connected line of paper, you would burn something that would go 7800 times around the world, so that would be a roll almost a meter thick going around earth. If you would burn that in parallel, I am lacking imagination how long it would take.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sueden.social/users/muellerwhh/statuses/116498439791543182https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://sueden.social/users/muellerwhh/statuses/116498439791543182Fri, 01 May 2026 08:45:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 07:42:01 GMT]]>@anton

> Federal Reserve notes are a blend of 25 percent linen and 75 percent cotton. Currency paper has tiny red and blue synthetic fibers of various lengths evenly distributed throughout the paper.

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Currency Facts

The U.S. Currency Education Program shares several unique facts about U.S. currency.

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U.S. Currency Education Program (www.uscurrency.gov)

@michael_w_busch

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/ePD5qRxX/statuses/116498190923167057https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.online/users/ePD5qRxX/statuses/116498190923167057Fri, 01 May 2026 07:42:01 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 06:29:57 GMT]]>@paco @davidgerard I need to buy that almost free methane from US shell cracking industry and just let it fly into atmosphere. usually they just burn it because methane is more potent greenhouse gas, and it's almost free.

please invest in my idea, it's the most efficient way to burn money

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/gonzo_askold/statuses/116497907566730042https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/gonzo_askold/statuses/116497907566730042Fri, 01 May 2026 06:29:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 06:28:30 GMT]]>@michael_w_busch @diazona @paco Also: how many trees need to be cut to produce those 2000 tons of rag paper?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://icosahedron.website/users/anton/statuses/116497901821172363https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://icosahedron.website/users/anton/statuses/116497901821172363Fri, 01 May 2026 06:28:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 05:56:55 GMT]]>@qurlyjoe @paco @davidgerard Yeah, there are a *lot* of variables that are hard to envision. This particular scenario is the combustion equivalent of a spherical cow in many ways.

Rising hot air would definitely stir things up a lot, so you probably don’t have the nice clean circular flame front I was starting out with, your “fuel” is likewise going to get disturbed a bit, and you also get embers blown around that can start new fires elsewhere. All of which change the actual time quite a bit, either way.

Possibly actual measurements on dry grass fires (also low mass but rapidly burning fuel) would be informative (how long to burn a 20 million square meter area?) Only observational physics here for this one, not experimental.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/dpnash/statuses/116497777646508247https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/dpnash/statuses/116497777646508247Fri, 01 May 2026 05:56:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 04:43:18 GMT]]>@dpnash @paco @davidgerard yet another countless example of why I fucking love the Fediverse.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://beige.party/users/LibertyForward1/statuses/116497488182232263https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://beige.party/users/LibertyForward1/statuses/116497488182232263Fri, 01 May 2026 04:43:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 04:33:45 GMT]]>@dpnash @paco @davidgerard
Not sure how air circulation will affect the burn rate. There’d be hot air rising from the burn area which would affect the outward spread of flames, effectively sucking air in from the periphery, slowing the outward spread. Any transient air from one side or another might push the flames horizontally.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/qurlyjoe/statuses/116497450632604676https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/qurlyjoe/statuses/116497450632604676Fri, 01 May 2026 04:33:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 03:02:40 GMT]]>@diazona @paco Beat me to it.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/pauamma/statuses/116497092469503004https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mstdn.social/users/pauamma/statuses/116497092469503004Fri, 01 May 2026 03:02:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 02:18:23 GMT]]>@Taco_lad @paco @michael_w_busch @diazona Excellent analysis. If those notes burning end to end took ten seconds each, a little over 634 years.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.world/users/Nigel_Lake/statuses/116496918325214234https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.world/users/Nigel_Lake/statuses/116496918325214234Fri, 01 May 2026 02:18:23 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 01:07:32 GMT]]>@dpnash @paco @davidgerard here’s some prior art, a million £ takes about an hour to burn. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Foundation_Burn_a_Million_Quid

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://corteximplant.com/users/cobweb/statuses/116496639727591515https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://corteximplant.com/users/cobweb/statuses/116496639727591515Fri, 01 May 2026 01:07:32 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 01:00:45 GMT]]>@dpnash @paco @davidgerard That scene in The Dark Night where the Joker burned a huge pile of money always bothered me, it seemed like most of the money on the inside of the pile would be fine.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/jef/statuses/116496613076802594https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/jef/statuses/116496613076802594Fri, 01 May 2026 01:00:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 00:57:39 GMT]]>@dpnash @paco @davidgerard I feel like this could be solved or at least animated with Blender

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hellions.cloud/users/dannotdaniel/statuses/116496600910931325https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://hellions.cloud/users/dannotdaniel/statuses/116496600910931325Fri, 01 May 2026 00:57:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 00:55:45 GMT]]>@paco @davidgerard accordingbto the official dimensions, a US dollar bill of any denomination has a volume of just over a millilitre

with 2 billion of those, you could stack them into a cube with a side length of almost exactly 13.12 meters (in a perfect world; you might need to add some extra space for shelving and/or reinforcements) and a weight of just about 2000 tons

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://girlcock.club/users/spacekatia/statuses/116496593412732389https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://girlcock.club/users/spacekatia/statuses/116496593412732389Fri, 01 May 2026 00:55:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 00:53:43 GMT]]>@revk @paco @davidgerard

One advantage of doing the test this way is the uncertainty in the time estimate is high enough that nobody (except possibly your financial advisor and some carefully chosen charities) notices you only burned $199.99B instead of the intended $200B.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/dpnash/statuses/116496585451042653https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://c.im/users/dpnash/statuses/116496585451042653Fri, 01 May 2026 00:53:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to In his latest “Pivot to AI” OpenAI faces cash crunch in 2026 as bills come due, @davidgerard (accurately) says: “#OpenAI works by setting as much money as it can on fire, as fast as possible.” on Fri, 01 May 2026 00:49:52 GMT]]>@dpnash @paco @davidgerard this clearly needs mythbusters to do a test.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.me.uk/users/revk/statuses/116496570303043142https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://toot.me.uk/users/revk/statuses/116496570303043142Fri, 01 May 2026 00:49:52 GMT