--- title: Why Are We Still Doing This? | daily.dev description: A sharp critique of the generative AI industry's economics, arguing that AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have no viable path to profitability. Key... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-we-still-doing-this--8cuxgxfhz twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Why Are We Still Doing This? | daily.dev og:description: A sharp critique of the generative AI industry's economics, arguing that AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have no viable path to profitability. Key... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-we-still-doing-this--8cuxgxfhz og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/8CuxGxfHz.png og:image:alt: Why Are We Still Doing This? 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. # Why Are We Still Doing This? **[Where's Your Ed At](https://daily.dev/sources/wheresyoured)** · 43 min read · 10 upvotes · 2 comments ## Summary A sharp critique of the generative AI industry's economics, arguing that AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have no viable path to profitability. Key points include: Anthropic spent $10B on compute while generating only $5B in lifetime revenue; subscription pricing models are fundamentally broken because compute costs can far exceed subscription fees (one user's $200/month plan equated to $12,000/month in API costs); the Uber comparison used by AI boosters is invalid due to fundamentally different cost structures; AI ROI remains unproven after nearly four years; and data center debt deals are pulling in pension and insurance funds despite junk credit ratings, potentially setting up a financial crisis analogous to 2008's CDO collapse. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@creativewarlock** · 0 upvotes > They need to build the customers. > Meanwhile, The customers need to stay hooked. Both sides need to learn. > After a while the losers go and the paying winners stay. **@ezpie** · 0 upvotes > I'll be the AI bro here. Trust me bro it'll work out. ## 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 - [AI Is Too Expensive](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-is-too-expensive-snj1hxice) · Where's Your Ed At · 86 upvotes · 22 comments - [Who profits from AI? Not OpenAI, says think tank](https://daily.dev/posts/who-profits-from-ai-not-openai-says-think-tank-owrdvd8gn) · InfoWorld · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#genai](https://daily.dev/tags/genai), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-we-still-doing-this--8cuxgxfhz) ```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":"Why Are We Still Doing This?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-we-still-doing-this--8cuxgxfhz","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/why-are-we-still-doing-this--8cuxgxfhz"},"datePublished":"2026-03-17T16:41:24.147Z","dateModified":"2026-03-17T16:41:48.129Z","description":"A sharp critique of the generative AI industry's economics, arguing that AI companies like Anthropic and OpenAI have no viable path to profitability. 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Both sides need to learn.\nAfter a while the losers go and the paying winners stay.","datePublished":"2026-03-18T18:20:01.289Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/8CuxGxfHz#c-XwV9pUmz9","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Marcel Fitzner","url":"https://daily.dev/creativewarlock","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/4894323?v=4"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’ll be the AI bro here. Trust me bro it’ll work out.","datePublished":"2026-03-23T13:23:53.979Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/8CuxGxfHz#c-Zg3RyBsEA","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ezpie","url":"https://daily.dev/ezpie","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/104765117?v=4"}}]} ```