> Sure, that profit does not cover the model training costs, but that’s a separate issue

It is? If another company comes out with a better model tomorrow and offers it at the same price Anthropic charges for Opus, they’re going to lose customers fast. They have to keep training to keep selling inference.

Most businesses factor in the cost of making their product into the product’s P&L.

also, like super mario kart, SOTA models from the rear will be continually released because theyre sunk costs and open weights will advertise for themselves. Also, its clear FOMO is a DDoS attack on any perceived leader because theres no way they dont oversell.

Lastly, theyll realize like every good capitalist, theres more profit in exclusiveness and cutiing out customers.