Everyone in Silicon Valley is whispering about tokenmaxxing right now. (we went from SaaSpocalypse to Tokenpocalypse real fast)

The idea is simple: more context, more compute, more tokens = better AI output.

Except… not always.

Tokenmaxxing has put pressure on compute, blown up budgets, and sent everyone in tech into an extremely nerdy frenzy.

Ofc I wanted the insider Tea. So I spoke with James Everingham, former VP of Engineering at Meta and now CEO of Guild.ai, which recently raised $44M to build a control plane for AI agents.

His take was clear: tokenmaxxing is a broken incentive model.

He compared it to paying truck drivers based on how much fuel they burn:

More fuel does not mean more deliveries. It might just mean longer routes, idling engines, higher costs, and no actual progress.

Same with AI.

And the problem gets even messier with agents. AI agents are inherently non-deterministic, meaning the same prompt can produce different outputs — and different paths to get there. 

Once agents start calling tools, triggering other agents, and spending real compute dollars, companies need a new layer of governance: permissions, identity, budget caps….essentially, circuit breakers. Guild is working on exactly that, building a central control plane for AI agents.

I left my conversation with James thinking that the pendulum is about to swing the other way.

I was at an AI conference last week and the term I kept hearing was tokenomics: a new economic model that balances labor, output, and compute.

Tokenmaxxing may be the current hype cycle. But tokenomics, IMO, will be the operating model for scaled AI. 

I'm investigating this week. More Tea coming soon.

1. SpaceX acquires Cursor for $60B days after its IPO

My Tea: SpaceX is starting to look a lot more like an AI company — and investing like one too. See linked video for my full take.

2. Meta’s new superintelligence team is reportedly rife with politics, infighting, and culture clashes

My Tea: One employee reportedly called the team a “soul-crushing gulag.” Mo’ money, mo’ management problems at Meta?

3. Anthropic enters negotiations to restore access to Fable & Mythos models after U.S. government restrictions

My Tea: Should frontier AI models be treated like military or national-security technology — and regulated accordingly?

4. AI leaders join the G7 Summit as governments ramp up focus on AI

My Tea: Five years ago, tech CEOs lobbied governments. Today, governments are asking AI CEOs how to govern AI. A remarkable power shift.

5. Tokenmaxxing backfires as OpenAI, Meta, Uber, and others confront rising AI costs

My Tea: Silicon Valley spent two years telling everyone to use more AI. Now the bills are coming due — and strategy is shifting from adoption to ROI.

I’m finally back after a chaotic few weeks of travel for conferences and collaborations: SF to Vegas to NYC to Boston, back to NYC, to Ohio. Phew.

Meetings and interviews with Pega Systems, IBM, Abridge, and LinkedIn — plus a quick detour to Chagrin Falls, Ohio for my best friend’s birthday.

Big city girl in small-town Ohio? Yes it was truly a Hallmark-coded visit, minus the handsome farmer, plus a visit to Amish country and a friend’s steel mill (both very interesting places for a Silicon Valley girl!). More Tea on that…if you care for it lol.

MANGOS is the new FAANG. (Keep up). Here’s the Tea.

I had a big campaign with OpenAI go live last week. It was personally a full-circle moment for me: I started my AI journey with ChatGPT and it felt surreal to be working with them on their latest launch, Codex. See below.

I got a lot of requests for some positive coverage on Snap Specs from my former colleagues at Snap. And let me tell you. I really tried. I love Snap. But this? This was a mess. Snap is losing touch and they need to get a grip, stat. Here’s the unfiltered Tea.

Midjourney, the company best known for AI image generation, now wants to scan your actual body with “Midjourney Medical,” a concept for a full-body ultrasound scanner that lowers you into a water-filled tube, creates a 3D map of your organs, and then sends you off to a spa experience with personalized saunas and cold plunges. As an AI and wellness junkie….I’m here for the bizarre crossover.

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Stay steeped (in the Tech Tea, not the Midjourney water tubes ^ 🫖) -M