So, I originally planned for this to be on my premium newsletter, but decided it was better to publish on my free one so that you could all enjoy it. If you liked it, please consider subscribing to support my work. Here’s $10 off the first year of annual.I’ve also recorded an episode about this on my podcast Better Offline (RSS feed, Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio), it’s a little different but both handle the same information, just subscribe and it'll pop up. Over the last two years I have written again and again about the ruinous costs of running generative AI services, and today I’m coming to you with real proof.Based on discussions with sources with direct knowledge of their AWS billing, I am able to disclose the amounts that AI firms are spending, specifically Anthropic and AI coding company Cursor, its largest customer.I can exclusively reveal today Anthropic’s spending on Amazon Web Services for the entirety of 2024, and for every month in 2025 up until September, and that that Anthropic’s spend on compute far exceeds that previously reported. Furthermore, I can confirm that through September, Anthropic has spent more than 100% of its estimated revenue (based on reporting in the last year) on Amazon Web Services, spending $2.66 billion on compute on an estimated $2.55 billion in revenue.Additionally, Cursor’s Amazon Web Services bills more than doubled from $6.2 million in May 2025 to $12.6 million in June 2025, exacerbating a cash crunch that began when Anthropic introduced Priority Service Tiers, an aggressive rent-seeking measure that begun what I call the Subprime AI Crisis, where model providers begin jacking up the prices on their previously subsidized rates.Although Cursor obtains the majority of its compute from Anthropic — with AWS contributing a relatively small amount, and likely also taking care of other parts of its business — the data seen reveals an overall direction of travel, where the costs of compute only keep on going up. Let’s get to it.Some ...
First seen: 2025-10-20 16:05
Last seen: 2025-10-20 16:05