These models will become more expensive over time, it's functionally impossible for them not to, they just want to capture the market before they have to stop selling at a huge loss.

They could have said the same about transistors. People keep inventing new ways to keep the costs down. Just look at the latest Qwen, DeepSeek, BitNet. Interesting tidbit: they’re all open, and as Google said in 2022: they have no moat.