Erik Voorhees on Who Really Owns the AI Stack

Summary

Erik Voorhees discusses Venice's token-versus-equity structure, the deflationary VBV token plan, and why AI inference tokens are becoming a low-margin commodity. He also argues crypto rails are better suited for AI agents and that memecoins are non-accretive. The conversation covers Stripe's acquisition of OpenRouter, open-weight Chinese models, censorship layers, and government control risks in AI.

• Venice sold equity instead of VBV tokens and plans to buy back and burn tokens to create deflationary supply.
• AI inference and token sales are described as a commodity race to zero with tiny margins.
• Crypto rails are framed as the natural payment and transfer layer for AI agents and robots.
• Memecoins are criticized as speculative entertainment that does not grow the broader pie.
• Open-weight Chinese models such as GLM 5.3 are seen catching up at a fraction of closed-lab cost.
• The group discusses Stripe's purchase of OpenRouter and its crypto-to-AI pivot.
• Government control and censorship layers around AI are identified as key risks to US models.