OpenAI and Anthropic face rising pressure to cut AI costs and profit

In short: OpenAI and Anthropic are under growing pressure to become profitable as the cost of running their AI products rises.

What's going on

The Verge’s Decoder podcast says 2026 is shaping up as a make-or-break year for two major AI companies, OpenAI and Anthropic. The core problem is simple, they spend huge amounts of money to run AI systems, and investors want proof they can bring in more money than they burn.

A big reason costs are rising is the shift toward “AI agents.” An agent is an AI tool that can take actions for you, like writing code, checking files, or doing multi step tasks (think of it like a very fast assistant that needs a lot of electricity to work). These tools use far more computing power than basic chatbots, which can make them expensive to offer on a flat monthly subscription.

The episode points to recent examples of companies tightening the belt. OpenAI abruptly shut down its video app Sora, and The Verge says it even walked away from a $1 billion Disney licensing deal, because it cost too much to run and OpenAI wanted the computing capacity for Codex, its coding product. Anthropic also changed access to heavy usage of its Claude system through the OpenClaw agent framework, pushing some users from standard subscriptions to pay as you go plans that can cost more.

What to watch

Both companies are expected to move toward public stock listings, which often brings more scrutiny on spending and profits. Watch for more product shutdowns, stricter usage limits, and higher prices, especially for agent style features that consume lots of computing power.

Source: The Verge AI