The Y Combinator Question And Is Silicon Valley’s Kingmaker Playing A Different Game In The AI Era?

Y Combinator’s first ever Spring 2025 batch at their new HQ showcased 141 startups with an average weekly revenue growth of 12%, marking another impressive milestone for the accelerator that gave the world Airbnb, Stripe, and Dropbox. More than 18000 startups applied, and at the 0.8% accept rate, the prestige and hype seem to be at the all time high .Yet these metrics show a more intriguing question that has venture capitalists and industry observers scratching their heads.