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There is no evidence that per-token inference prices (which is what Uber is setting a cap on) is subsidized.
by square_usual 4mo ago
There is no evidence that per-token inference prices (which is what Uber is setting a cap on) is subsidized.
- lelanthran 4mo agoIs there any evidence that it's not?
- thejazzman 4mo agoYes; they ban various uses of their subscriptions but say you can do whatever if you’re paying for the API without limits
- lelanthran 4mo agoThat's not evidence. Very likely though, but the only evidence we get one way or another is when they IPO.
- simonw 4mo agoThis story isn't about those subscriptions - enterprise customers like Uber are paying the full API prices.
- pqtyw 4mo agoThat's just market segmentation and them trying to maximize revenue it doesen't really say anything about their costs.
- Topfi 4mo agoThe fact that Anthropic models are offered at the same API pricing by not just themselves but AWS, Azure and Vertex despite Anthropic taking a major slice on licensing along with the cost an open weight 1T parameter model like K2.6 costs to run on any third-party provider, make it unlikely that API inference cost are subsidized by the labs.
- pqtyw 4mo agoOpenrouter? i.e. Even excluding Deep Seek inference for very large open models is way cheaper. Maybe these providers are not very profitable but its highly unlikely that they are losing $4 for every $1 they make since selling inference is their only product...
- pier25 4mo agoAI companies have more expenses than inference.
- RugnirViking 4mo agoyes, and theres no evidence that they arent (or can't) use profitable inference to subsidise those other expenses. Some companies will keep spending massively to train better models, and some other companies will not, and offer good api prices. Which will end up being used? That depends on whether the spending turns into better value models
- pier25 4mo ago> theres no evidence that they arent (or can't) use profitable inference to subsidise those other expenses as far as we know there's no evidence that they can produce any profits at all
- jordanscales 4mo agoThe evidence that per-token inference _is_ subsidized is (a) competition is a bloodbath (b) these companies are raising more money than any company has raised ever (c) a maybe-profitable quarter is maybe-coming for Anthropic after maybe-signing a compute deal with SpaceX that legitimizes both companies. The evidence that per-token inference _is not_ subsidized is... a quote or two from Dario and Sam Altman
- polski-g 4mo agoYou think Fireworks is subsidizing token spend? And Friendli? And Baseten? Every single provider on Openrouter is offering their service at a loss? What?
- jordanscales 4mo agoYes I believe Anthropic is selling its tokens to Fireworks and Openrouter at a loss.