The Token Economy: eBay’s Build vs. Buy Playbook for AI

eBay has been running its own private cloud for decades. So when AI spending started accelerating, the calculus didn’t change. It got more complicated.

In this episode of Built for Trust, Nick Lippis sits down with John Feldmeier, CIO at eBay, to talk about what a build-first philosophy actually means in the age of AI.

They discuss why eBay is doing both, buying to move fast and bringing things in-house as usage scales, and what token economics looks like in practice when budgets are finite and model choices matter.

John also addresses the tension showing up everywhere right now: boards pushing for speed, security teams pumping the brakes, and finance asking hard questions about ROI. And why, ultimately, the hardest part of AI adoption isn’t the technology. It’s bringing people along with it.

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