By Adam Clark
OpenAI could be about to slash the price for using its artificial-intelligence products, a move which would pose a significant test to optimism about AI and the wider technology sector.
ChatGPT-developer OpenAI is considering significantly lowering the price for tokens -- the basic unit of AI consumption -- to compete with rival Anthropic, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter
OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The potential price cut comes amid recent reports that multiple technology companies, including Uber Technologies, have faced unexpectedly high bills for AI usage. Several of those reports were associated with Anthropic's Claude, which is often used to operate so-called agents -- AI which can carry out multistep tasks independently.
"There's a term for the pattern that drove these situations: tokenmaxxing. The organizational push to use as much AI as possible, as fast as possible," said Neil Dhar, a senior vice president at IBM Consulting. "It emerged from two years of competitive anxiety, where the pressure to adopt AI outpaced serious consideration of long-term return on investment."
OpenAI and Anthropic are competing hard to keep business clients using their services. However, if they sacrifice too much margin to maintain growth, investors might be concerned when they reach the public market. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are expected to launch initial public offerings with valuations at more than $1 trillion in the coming months.
If those IPOs flop, it would have huge consequences throughout the stock market as investors re-evaluate the future of the AI trend.
OpenAI has committed to roughly $1.4 trillion in spending and has major cloud-computing and chip deals with companies including Microsoft, Oracle, CoreWeave, Advanced Micro Devices, and Broadcom. Anthropic's spending isn't at quite the same scale, but it also has hundreds of billions worth of spending commitments with Alphabet's Google, Amazon.com, and Broadcom.
"Price CUTS anywhere in the AI ecosystem when demand for 'compute' is supposedly infinite, seems...problematic," veteran short seller Jim Chanos wrote Thursday in a post on X.
Chanos has been a vocal critic of the AI investment boom, arguing it is reminiscent of the 1990s dot-com bubble.
However, falling prices for AI don't inevitably spell the end of the trend. After all, per-token costs have fallen dramatically due to more efficient hardware and software, while Chinese AI providers have consistently offered cheaper models with capabilities only mildly behind the leading U.S. companies.
The question is whether OpenAI and Anthropic can convince the public market that they can find a workable economic model while competing to come out on top in AI. If not, watch out for the rest of the tech sector.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 11, 2026 11:15 ET (15:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Comments