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On 2026-08-04, @championswimmer claims OpenAI accomplished the two 'extremely…

2026-08-04 · 00:48 UTC ·@championswimmer ·1 min read

Brief

Championswimmer (2026-08-04) notes that OpenAI has, contrary to Ed Zitron's warning, both secured unprecedented funding and 'invented reasoning models'—the two steps Zitron said were necessary to avoid collapse within 12–24 months—characterizing OpenAI's success as a 'legendary run'.

Why it matters

On 2026-08-04, @championswimmer claims OpenAI accomplished the two 'extremely unlikely' conditions Ed Zitron framed as necessary to avoid collapse: raising 'more funding than anyone ever before' and inventing 'reasoning models'.

Key details

  • Ed Zitron had hypothesized OpenAI would collapse within 12–24 months unless it (1) raised more funding than in Silicon Valley history and (2) created an entirely new form of AI; championswimmer calls OpenAI meeting those conditions a 'legendary run'.
Source evidence

It is interesting that OpenAI did the two extremely unlikely things Ed wrote like a 'gotcha'. "They will die unless they do these two impossible things". They did both.

  1. more funding than anyone ever before

  2. invented reasoning models

Legendary run, however you see.

Ed Zitron (@edzitron)

Newsletter: Based on estimates of their burn rate and historic analyses, I hypothesize that OpenAI will collapse in the next 12-24 months unless it raises more funding than in the history of the valley and creates an entirely new form of AI.

wheresyoured.at/to-serve-alt…

Link

How Does OpenAI Survive?

Throughout the last year I’ve written in detail about the rot in tech — the spuriousness of charlatans looking to accumulate money and power, the desperation of the most powerful executives to...
wheresyoured.at

— https://nitter.net/edzitron/status/1817955630784917548#m