AI vendors have found someone to pay their infrastructure bills: You
The Register ● Covered by 5 sources
Software vendors including Anthropic, OpenAI, GitHub, and Microsoft are shifting from flat-rate subscriptions to usage-based billing models to pass AI infrastructure costs to customers. A Forrester survey of 2,600 decision-makers found that 80 percent expect data and software budgets to rise in 2027, with Bain & Company estimating AI datacenter build costs will reach $2 trillion by 2030. Organizations will need to adopt new financial operations practices with cost controls like model routing and semantic caching to manage unpredictable token-based AI expenses.
Why it matters
Forrester warns price hikes and usage charges will pump up software budgets next year
Also covered by
- VentureBeat AI — The AI compute gap: Enterprises are buying infrastructure faster than they can measure what it costs
- The New Stack — The enterprise strikes back: Keep your data, ditch the AI bill.
- The Register — Sticker shock has execs rethinking this whole AI thing
- CSET Georgetown — Companies turn to Chinese AI models to cut costs
