Rising AI Costs Are Becoming a Problem For Even Investors

In recent months, a lot of discussion has centered around the rising costs of AI, with even large, sophisticated public companies like Uber blowing through their 2026 AI budgets in a matter of months. Even venture capitalists are feeling the pain. One partner at a large fund told me that they previously gave five of their staffers enterprise Claude accounts to help them with their work. In recent weeks, those usage-based accounts have cost the firm upwards of $1,000 per day per account as the staffers’ usage of advanced and expensive models have grown, the partner said.