No, it doesn't cost Anthropic $5k per Claude Code user

Post by lovich » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 8:44 PM UTC

lokar wrote: post #283

elbasti wrote: post #280

"Any conversation about token costs devolves into an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden implementation of half of generally accepted accounting principles." We have a way of determining if Anthropic is, or has the capability of being profitable, and what the levers to that may be. AI may be world-changing, but the accounting principles behind AI labs are no different than those behind a Pizza Hut. Even if the c…

Of course a model does not really depreciate, the problem is they are forced by competitive pressure to offer newer/better models at the same price. This is what the elites of the gilded age called "ruinous competition", and the solution today will be the same as back then: monopoly power. This has been the business plan of the tech VC industry for 25+ years.

Post by lovich » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 8:49 PM UTC

nr378 wrote: post #295

elbasti wrote: post #280

"Any conversation about token costs devolves into an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden implementation of half of generally accepted accounting principles." We have a way of determining if Anthropic is, or has the capability of being profitable, and what the levers to that may be. AI may be world-changing, but the accounting principles behind AI labs are no different than those behind a Pizza Hut. Even if the c…

Dario has made a specific cohort argument here. His numbers (from various interviews) are: you train a model in 2023 for $100M, deploy it, and it earns $200M over its lifetime. Meanwhile you train the 2024 model for $1B, which goes on to earn $2B. Each vintage returns 2x on its training cost. However, the GAAP P&L tells the opposite story. You book $200M revenue in the same year you spend $1B training the next model,…

Post by lovich » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 9:00 PM UTC

lokar wrote: post #322

lovich wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they not depreciate? The models don't learn without training, and they have finite context windows. As software updates around the world, don't they have to be trained on the new information to stay up to date?

Fair, but in this context people are generally contemplating the need to replace the model with a new, much larger and more expensive model, not just refresh the training set. It's partly about updating what it "knows", but more about keeping up with competitive pressure on capabilities.

Post by freejazz » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 9:24 PM UTC

lokar wrote: post #322

lovich wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they not depreciate? The models don't learn without training, and they have finite context windows. As software updates around the world, don't they have to be trained on the new information to stay up to date?

Fair, but in this context people are generally contemplating the need to replace the model with a new, much larger and more expensive model, not just refresh the training set. It's partly about updating what it "knows", but more about keeping up with competitive pressure on capabilities.

Post by ValentineC » Tue, Mar 10, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

ffsm8 wrote: post #133

aweb wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised, isn't it forbidden to use the Max plan as part of a company? Just curious, as I thought it was forbidden by the ToS but I'm not sure if I have a good understanding of it

There is nothing in the TOS last time I checked forbidding it's use with Claude code. It's only forbidden to utilize it in the running of the business. So getting Claude code subscriptions for developers should be permissable and not be against anything... However, if you created a rest endpoint to eg run a preconfigured prompt as part of your platform, that'd be against it But I'm neither a lawyer nor work for anthr…