I suggest also reading Kevin Buzzard's blog post which was just posted: https://xenaproject.wordpress.com/2026/09/04/flt-anthropic-h...

Provides great context on this accomplishment, what it means but also doesn't mean.

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dang an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Thanks! I've added that link to the toptext.

I'd really like to make it the top link (and relegate https://www.anthropic.com/research/formalizing-fermats-last-... to the toptext) since HN has been tracking the work of https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kevinbuzzard for a long time and we're big fans. But I guess that would be overkill.

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faitswulff 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I’m not very good at mathematics, but it seems like Kevin should take his girlfriend on trips more often for the good of all mathematicians.

	▲	aquafox 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		We should start a gofundme to send him 2 months to a remote tribe in the Amazon. Chances are, we see the Riemann hypothesis and twin prime conjecture proven. ;)

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BeetleB 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"I was given £1M to run my project over 5 years; Anthropic took only 11 days but I do wonder if they spent more money…"

Gives you an idea of the scale...

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sebzim4500 2 hours ago | parent [-]

It sounds plausible they spent more, given the output tokens (6 billion of them) would cost $300k at API prices and presumably there will have been many more input tokens than output tokens.

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_aavaa_ 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Unlikely, api pricing includes a healthy profit margin (as near as we can tell from the outside) which they wouldn’t charge themselves.

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mbesto 35 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> healthy profit margin (as near as we can tell from the outside)

Ugh we still don't know if this is true and it's nearly impossible to calculate without a full understanding of the real CAPEX cycle. Stop spreading these rumors until we know for sure.

	▲	bryanlarsen 2 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		SemiAnalysis estimates their profit margin to be 70%. To be losing money on inference implies that their costs are almost 4X higher than SemiAnalysis has calculated. That's not credible.

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alch- an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I don't think Anthropic is turning a profit ;)

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_aavaa_ an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Whether on net they turn a profit as company overall is neither here nor there.. My point is that they are selling API tokens at a profit (or if being pedantic, then at a price higher than the cost to serve them ignoring research costs). And that that price is got a healthy margin which they don't charge themselves.

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irthomasthomas an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because of the ongoing training costs. They are certainly making a healthy profit margin on inference.

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dist-epoch an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Neither did Amazon for it's first 25 years ;)

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caughtinthought an hour ago | parent [-]

I think you're missing the point of the comment you responded to, lol.

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CaptWorld 37 minutes ago | parent [-]

Regardless the profit margin as a talking point seems to be bad as AI as a tech might never be reversed whether anthropic failed or succeeded. Indeed it's imperative we subsidize AI companies and tech to make them explore more solutions to scientific problems which has a downstream effect on human flourishing.

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oblio 27 minutes ago | parent [-]

Or we could invest in a ton of other non AI related research we're underinvesting in.

	▲	CaptWorld a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		Like? I feel breakthroughs that can be found via AI might help us more in the long term where even previously non AI fields can be helped by AI. So you have specific non AI research in mind that we're underinvesting in? Because the USA is already spending crazy anyway for healthcare and I don't feel like funding is the issue but better incentives, reforms etc

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2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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