Useful context for this is that token usage keeps rising at an exponential pace. I mean, we don't have numbers for the big labs, but Openrouter's numbers are quite telling (can't post link because corporate decided to block all "non-validated AI tools"), and I think they're probably representative of the global trend. +500% year to date, +50% over the month of May alone. It's unsurprising that providers are struggling to find and pay for the compute.

A lot of it feels very wasteful currently. The providers are giving out incredibly subsidised services so consumers are consuming incredible amounts. Once the prices go up to cover the costs people will re evaluate what’s actually generating value and what was just waste.

using openrouter leaderboards is no good. being on top of the board is marketing, so some labs are gaming that number. all marketing spend.