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Consensus seems to be that the labs are profitable on inference. They are only losing money on training and free users. The competition requiring them to spend that money on training and free users does complicate things. But when you just look at it from an inference perspective, looking at these data centres like token factories makes sense. I would definitely pay more to get faster inference of Opus 4.5, for examp…
>Consensus seems to be that the labs are profitable on inference. They are only losing money on training and free users. That sounds like “we’re profitable if you ignore our biggest expenses.” If they could be profitable now, we’d see at least a few companies just be profitable and stop the heavy expenses. My guess is it’s simply not the case or everyone’s trapped in a cycle where they are all required to keep spendi…
OpenAI could put in ads tomorrow and make tons of money overnight. The only reason they don't is competition. But when they start to find it harder to raise capital to fund their growth, they will.