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This article seems to be struggling with telling apart the difference between R&D and operating expenses? The fact that AI companies are extremely unprofitable
by wqaatwt 4mo ago
This article seems to be struggling with telling apart the difference between R&D and operating expenses? The fact that AI companies are extremely unprofitable doesn’t mean they are subsidizing token costs, they still can have very decent gross margins on them
- Gigachad 4mo agoThe accounting is all out of whack with these companies. If a GPU had a useful lifespan of around 3 years than it’s more a constant expense than R&D. They want you to believe they can cut the R&D at any time and be profitable but it’s likely they would completely collapse without that spend.
- zhivota 4mo agoI don't see why 3 years is the right number there. I'm using a 10 year old model GPU to generate tokens locally, and given the bottlenecks, a commercial model focused on RAM and transfer speeds should have a longer depreciation curve than 3 years.
- Gigachad 4mo agoBecause these GPUs in data centers chew power and take up space. If in 3 years there is a new model that processes far more tokens with the same power and time the economics quickly say the hardware is cheaper to replace than to continue running. As a hobbiest at home the numbers are different and you can afford to do something inefficient.
- wqaatwt 4mo agoFor some time capital costs seem to be dwarfing the operating costs (or at least energy costs) when it comes to GPUs. Of course that will likely change but it might take quite a while (unless the AI bubble violently pops)
- zhivota 4mo agoI still challenge it. After 3 years an H100 has not depreciated to zero, not even close. Even if you want to replace it, it has considerable residual value.