OpenAI embraces the 'platform paradox' by selling API access to startups that compete directly with its own apps like ChatGPT. The strategy is to foster a broad ecosystem, believing that enabling competitors is necessary to avoid losing the platform race entirely.

To counteract OpenAI's potential control over the OpenClaw project, venture firm Launch announced a dedicated investment thesis to fund startups building core infrastructure around it. The strategy is to foster a decentralized ecosystem focused on security, ease of use, hosting, and skills to ensure the project remains open.

Major AI model labs will acquire leading agent labs not just for talent, but for their superior user interfaces. For the agent labs, selling is a strategic move to avoid being eventually out-competed by the very model providers they rely on, making these M&A deals mutually beneficial.

Developers using OpenAI's API are warned that Sam Altman will analyze their usage data to identify and build competing features. This follows the classic playbook of platform owners like Microsoft and Facebook who studied third-party developers to absorb the most valuable use cases.

Developers using OpenAI's API risk having their innovations copied. The company allegedly studies API usage to identify successful applications and then builds competing features, a strategy historically employed by platform giants like Microsoft and Facebook to absorb value from their ecosystems.

Investments in OpenAI from giants like Amazon and Microsoft are strategic moves to embed the AI leader within their ecosystems. This is evidenced by deals requiring OpenAI to use the investors' proprietary processors and cloud infrastructure, securing technological dependency.

Companies like Meta and OpenAI aren't betting on a single AI future. They are making acquisitions and launching products to cover a range of possibilities, from agent-to-agent communication protocols to various human-AI interfaces (apps, browsers, OS-level). It's a strategic "coverage play."

The optimistic take is that OpenAI paid a premium to bring founder Peter in-house for his talent and to gain strategic insights from the open-source project's development. Placing OpenClaw in a foundation led by the ethical Dave Morin is a move to reassure the community.

The current AI landscape mirrors the historic Windows-Intel duopoly. OpenAI is the new Microsoft, controlling the user-facing software layer, while NVIDIA acts as the new Intel, dominating essential chip infrastructure. This parallel suggests a long-term power concentration is forming.