When your investor is also your vendor
Nvidia has announced over $540B of deals in 2026 and takes stakes in the customers who buy from it. That structure has reached your seed round. Price it before you sign.
Nvidia has announced more than $540 billion of AI deals in 2026. It also holds equity in several of the companies buying from it.
CoreWeave is the clean example. Nvidia holds a stake and has a compute purchase agreement running to 2032, reported at $6.3 billion.
Nvidia and Microsoft committed up to $15 billion combined to Anthropic. Anthropic committed to spend $30 billion on Azure.
The shape of the deal, not the ethics of it
Money goes out to a customer. The customer spends much of it back with the company that supplied the money.
Revenue looks stronger than end demand actually is. Analysts have been arguing about this all year.
I am not going to settle that argument here. It matters to you for a smaller reason.
The structure has travelled downhill. It is now in seed rounds, as credits, and as strategic cheques from companies who sell you things.
Credits are not cash, and everyone knows except the founder
An offer of $250,000 in platform credits is not $250,000. It is a discount on one supplier, redeemable only by using that supplier.
Its real worth is what you would have spent there anyway, at the price you would have paid.
If you would have spent $60,000 with them this year, the credit is worth about $60,000. The rest is a nudge to change your architecture.
Sometimes that is a fine trade. Take it knowingly.
Two ways to value the same offer
How it gets pitched
$250K in credits
- Counted into the round size
- Quoted at list price
- Described as non-dilutive
- Runway framed as extended
What it is worth
Your planned spend, discounted
- Only the portion you would have spent anyway
- At the price you could have negotiated
- Minus the cost of moving off later
- Expiring on their clock, not your runway
Four questions before you take strategic money
None of these are hostile. A good strategic investor answers all four without flinching.
Ask on the call
- Is spend a condition? Written or implied. Ask directly whether the investment assumes a level of purchasing from them.
- What happens at renewal? When credits run out, what do you pay. Get the post-credit rate in writing now, not in year two.
- Who sees my numbers? A vendor with board information rights is also a competitor to somebody in your market.
- Does it block a buyer? Rights of first refusal and change of control terms can narrow who is willing to acquire you later.
The prompt
Paste the term sheet or the offer email. It converts the offer into cash and names the strings.
You are helping a founder price an offer that mixes equity investment
with vendor credits or a commercial commitment.
Here is the offer:
[PASTE THE TERM SHEET, EMAIL OR TERM SUMMARY]
Here is my current spend with this supplier: [AMOUNT PER MONTH, OR NONE]
Here is what I would spend with them over the next 18 months without
this offer: [AMOUNT, OR UNKNOWN]
Return, in plain language:
1. CASH: the amount that actually lands in the bank account.
2. CREDITS: the face value, and my honest estimate of realisable value
using my planned spend above. Show the arithmetic in one line.
3. COMMITMENTS: everything I am agreeing to spend, buy, or use, with
the term length. Quote the clause for each.
4. STRINGS: information rights, board or observer seats, rights of
first refusal, exclusivity, change of control terms.
5. EXIT COST: what it would cost me to stop using this supplier in
year two, based on what the document says.
6. The one clause I should most want removed, and a sentence I could
send asking for it.
Rules: never treat credits as cash. If the document is silent on a
point, write SILENT rather than assuming the friendly reading. This
is not legal advice and you should say so at the end.What I actually think about strategic money
Take it when the vendor is one you would have chosen anyway. Take it when the cash portion stands on its own.
Refuse it when the credits are doing the work of making a low cheque look bigger.
And keep the two decisions apart. Choose your supplier on the technology. Choose your investor on the terms.
Be suspicious of anyone who insists those are the same decision.
The offer breakdown prompt is on the resources page. Free, no email required.