ai
Venture capitalist says AI tokens add costs for CFOs
Chamath Palihapitiya said on CNBC that companies encouraging heavy AI use could face unexpected expenses and earnings misses. He pointed to cheaper models from Meta, Google, and SpaceX that are closing quality gaps with premium options.
Jul 14, 11:57 AM·1m read2 sources
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Chamath Palihapitiya said Tuesday on CNBC that many companies may face surprise operating expenses from rising AI token consumption. He stated that CEOs and CFOs likely do not know the extent of internal AI usage and predicted some could miss earnings expectations. Palihapitiya described the trend as "tokenmaxxing," a term for maximizing AI token consumption to increase output.
Competition narrows quality gap Palihapitiya said cheaper models from Meta, Google, and SpaceX are now 80 to 95 percent as capable as premium offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic. He compared recent model improvements to successive iPhone releases, noting smaller performance gains rather than large leaps.
When asked about lower-cost models from Grok and Meta, Palihapitiya said they match premium models for most use cases.
Companies adjust spending Some firms introduced leaderboards and incentives to promote AI tool usage among employees. Uber's CTO Praveen Neppalli Naga said in April that the company had exhausted its full-year budget for one AI model. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said the company ended internal projects that consumed large numbers of tokens.
" Palihapitiya did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
