5h ago
Hyperscalers Adopt Usage-Based Pricing Pre-IPO Amid Heavy AI Losses
⚠️Why didn’t the hyperscalers wait until after the IPO in switching to pay-by-usage-charging? My guess is that *they literally could not afford to* —because it would bankrupt them. My reasoning: in “all you can eat” agent era they were hemorrhaging money. So the hyperscalers probably had to choose between hemorrhaging insane amounts of money (with tokenmaxxing) and reducing usage and potentially burning customer enthusiasm (via increasing rates). They would eat another 6 months of all you can eat if they possibly could– to establish market appetite—so I conclude that they just can’t. Conclusion: They just don’t have enough cash. Despite the possibility of giant IPOs, their financial situation is shaky.
here’s why i think the situation may be dire:
⚠️Why didn’t the hyperscalers wait until after the IPO in switching to pay-by-usage-charging? My guess is that *they literally could not afford to* —because it would bankrupt them. My reasoning: in “all you can eat” agent era they were hemorrhaging money. So the hyperscalers probably had to choose between hemorrhaging insane amounts of money (with tokenmaxxing) and reducing usage and potentially burning customer enthusiasm (via increasing rates). They would eat another 6 months of all you can eat if they possibly could– to establish market appetite—so I conclude that they just can’t. Conclusion: They just don’t have enough cash. Despite the possibility of giant IPOs, their financial situation is shaky.