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The a16z Show · Monday, August 31, 2026

AI Companies' Revenue Flexibility: Training vs. Inference Decisions

AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic have significant control over their revenue streams, which can fluctuate based on decisions about allocating compute power between training and inference. A shift towards more training could drastically reduce current revenue levels.

companyOpenAIcompanyAnthropiccompanyMetacompanyGoogle

The tape

3 quotes
So it's meta and Google and these kind of internet companies that were just, it was pretty smooth fundamentally. Even if the stocks were volatile.
Gavin Baker
And how much they allocate between training and inference.
Gavin Baker
And then your revenue just went from 480 to 120. And I think they would do that decision.
Gavin Baker
Heard on The a16z Show — “Gavin Baker: Why AI Demand Is Outrunning Compute Supply, published Monday, August 31, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
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AI Companies' Revenue Flexibility: Training vs. Inference Decisions — Heardvine