I don't think it's the conspiracy theory that you're making it out to be.

It is publicly known that the vast majority of deals in the AI space are circular in nature without the need for explicitly encoding any of it in a legal contract or even tacit agreements.

e.g. Nvidia has invested significantly in many AI companies including both Anthropic and OpenAI which rely heavily on Nvidia's hardware and will undoubtedly use some of said investment towards that end.

Nvidia and Oracle are already public companies, they're just aiming for their next quarterly statements.

SpaceX is getting dressed for their debutante ball and is putting on the makeup to make a grand entrance on the auction floor.

Is there a difference? I legitimately have no idea. You are right that we can add another entry to the list of interconnected circular dealmakings. All this ain't gonna end well next time the music stops playing.