BARTER DEALS
When you invest in a startup using non-cash instruments.
We are now seeing this happening with all of the AI startups like Anthropic, which allegedly received a $4B investment (not valuation) from Amazon.
However, the private term sheet is disclosed. It is unlikely that Amazon is paying cash, but offers something else like AWS credit in order for Anthropic to use their cloud service infrastructure. Because you are paid with some funny instrument, or future cashflows, or services, this is called a barter deal.
Because Amazon does not put cash into the deal, the valuation can be anything - Amazon can essentially print out its own money, not unlikely that SBF from FTX did.
Barter deals were already popular during the dot com bubble of the 00s. It is also one of the reasons why the bubble formed and why the bubble burst.
Here is an old article from 2002 about the topic:
cnet.com/tech/services-and-s…