--- title: The AI boom isn’t real: 70% of AI revenue comes from... description: Ed Zitron argues that the AI boom is a financial bubble, pointing out that 70-75% of AI revenues at Google, Amazon, and Microsoft come from just two companies... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-boom-isn-t-real-70-of-ai-revenue-comes-from-openai-and-anthropic-ed-zitron-rwlvcbgzn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The AI boom isn’t real: 70% of AI revenue comes from OpenAI and Anthropic | Ed Zitron | daily.dev og:description: Ed Zitron argues that the AI boom is a financial bubble, pointing out that 70-75% of AI revenues at Google, Amazon, and Microsoft come from just two companies... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-boom-isn-t-real-70-of-ai-revenue-comes-from-openai-and-anthropic-ed-zitron-rwlvcbgzn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/rwlVcbGzN.png og:image:alt: The AI boom isn’t real: 70% of AI revenue comes from OpenAI and Anthropic | Ed Zitron og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The AI boom isn’t real: 70% of AI revenue comes from OpenAI and Anthropic | Ed Zitron **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 46 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Ed Zitron argues that the AI boom is a financial bubble, pointing out that 70-75% of AI revenues at Google, Amazon, and Microsoft come from just two companies — OpenAI and Anthropic — which themselves are funded by those same hyperscalers. He contends there is no diverse customer base for AI compute, that inference is not profitable, and that the trillions being spent on AI infrastructure cannot be recouped given current and projected revenues. Zitron highlights that analyst estimates for future hyperscaler growth are contingent on OpenAI and Anthropic continuing to spend at unsustainable rates, creating a circular dependency. He dismisses comparisons to the internet boom, argues that AI does not scale like traditional software, and predicts enterprise pullback is already beginning. His conclusion is that the AI industry as currently structured is a revenue extraction vehicle built on venture capital, not genuine end-user demand. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What percentage of Microsoft's AI revenue comes from OpenAI? Approximately 70% of Microsoft's AI revenue comes from OpenAI, which also represents around 7% of Microsoft's total annual revenue. This means that despite over $260 billion in capital expenditure, Microsoft's AI business is almost entirely dependent on a single customer it also funds — leaving virtually no revenue from other enterprise AI customers. _Developers tracking the real economics behind AI platform choices find the latest analysis on daily.dev._ ### How much are OpenAI and Anthropic projected to spend on compute by 2028? OpenAI and Anthropic are projected to spend over $70 billion combined in 2028, with OpenAI holding $750 billion in compute commitments through 2030 and Anthropic around $300 billion. Their combined estimated compute spend for the following year exceeds $200 billion — more than the entire annual revenue of Amazon Web Services. _Engineers evaluating AI infrastructure commitments and vendor lock-in risks stay informed on daily.dev._ ### Why is generative AI inference not profitable at scale? Generative AI inference costs scale with usage rather than decreasing like traditional software, meaning free or low-cost users become increasingly expensive as adoption grows. Canva reported that free users with AI access cost far more than regular free users. OpenAI's 80% price cuts were driven by fear of losing customers to DeepSeek, not by genuine efficiency gains, suggesting margins remain deeply negative. _Teams deciding whether to build AI features into their products track inference cost realities on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The AI Industry Is Losing](https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-industry-is-losing-0iyorrmhe) · Where's Your Ed At · 14 upvotes · 3 comments - [The OpenAI Bubble](https://daily.dev/posts/the-openai-bubble-dakwl1z1m) · Where's Your Ed At · 23 upvotes · 0 comments - [Ars Live recap: Is the AI bubble about to pop? Ed Zitron weighs in.](https://daily.dev/posts/ars-live-recap-is-the-ai-bubble-about-to-pop-ed-zitron-weighs-in--qjls6f0kb) · Ars Technica · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI Is Too Expensive](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-too-expensive-snj1hxice) · Where's Your Ed At · 86 upvotes · 22 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/cloud), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-boom-isn-t-real-70-of-ai-revenue-comes-from-openai-and-anthropic-ed-zitron-rwlvcbgzn) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The AI boom isn’t real: 70% of AI revenue comes from OpenAI and Anthropic | Ed Zitron","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-boom-isn-t-real-70-of-ai-revenue-comes-from-openai-and-anthropic-ed-zitron-rwlvcbgzn","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-boom-isn-t-real-70-of-ai-revenue-comes-from-openai-and-anthropic-ed-zitron-rwlvcbgzn"},"datePublished":"2026-08-09T15:54:01.856Z","dateModified":"2026-08-10T19:19:14.690Z","description":"Ed Zitron argues that the AI boom is a financial bubble, pointing out that 70-75% of AI revenues at Google, Amazon, and Microsoft come from just two companies...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/68X8yEatepQ/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/68X8yEatepQ/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-boom-isn-t-real-70-of-ai-revenue-comes-from-openai-and-anthropic-ed-zitron-rwlvcbgzn","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,cloud,openai,anthropic","timeRequired":"PT46M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"The AI boom isn’t real: 70% of AI revenue comes from OpenAI and Anthropic | Ed Zitron","description":"Ed Zitron argues that the AI boom is a financial bubble, pointing out that 70-75% of AI revenues at Google, Amazon, and Microsoft come from just two companies...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/68X8yEatepQ/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-09T15:54:01.856Z","duration":"PT46M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/rwlVcbGzN","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/68X8yEatepQ"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The AI boom isn’t real: 70% of AI revenue comes from OpenAI and Anthropic | Ed Zitron"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-ai-boom-isn-t-real-70-of-ai-revenue-comes-from-openai-and-anthropic-ed-zitron-rwlvcbgzn#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What percentage of Microsoft's AI revenue comes from OpenAI?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Approximately 70% of Microsoft's AI revenue comes from OpenAI, which also represents around 7% of Microsoft's total annual revenue. 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