> if OpenAI can’t use the compute, someone else can.
The problem with that is that OpenAI can only afford to pay for the compute because they are burning investor money (and so are most of OpenAI's biggest clients). They are losing billions. If they stop burning money, nobody else will be there to pay for that compute at OpenAI's cost.
Sure, somebody will probably be able to use these GPUs, they just won't be able to pay nearly as much for them as OpenAI does.
In reality, it's just nowhere near worth as much as OpenAI pays for it. Inflating the cost of compute is part of the problem caused by the circular financing, and if (or maybe when) OpenAI goes, the price of compute will go with them.
OpenAI and Anthropic are so far ahead of anyone else in terms of compute demand generation. Iirc correctly they're like 70% of GPU demand between them on hyperscalers and then Meta is 10% and Google internal demand is some distance behind meta. If OAI halved in generation you would need a couple of new companies with a Metas worth of demand to replace it is quite a sobering thought.
Believing only makes things true for so long until things fall apart. You can't keep burning billions every quarter. At some point, you run out of investors who believe, and the ones you have run out of money (see: Softbank).
Yes of course. Is the point you're actually trying to make that investors are making a pure call, so their belief in the story is misplaced? That they should believe a different story?
I think I made my point in the original post you responded to: OpenAI heavily subsidized token cost using investor money. If they go under, there will still be demand for that compute, but because OpenAI is paying more for it than it is actually worth (i.e. what the end customers are willing to pay), any company replacing OpenAI will not pay the same amount OpenAI pays.
So when people say "somebody else will buy that compute", they are correct, but they are ignoring that it will still cause a massive decrease in revenue generated by that compute.
If you're asking me what my point about "believing" is, it's this. OpenAI is losing billions every quarter. It's only staying afloat because it can still find investors who believe in its ability to eventually become incredibly profitable. But there are signs that this is starting to change (e.g. it's unlikely that Softbank will be able to find much more money to give to OpenAI). If OpenAI can't keep raising more money and can't IPO at the level they need (as seems to be the case, given that they keep pushing any IPO date forward), OpenAI will eventually run out of money.
I'm not sure how investors believing in things changes any of this, so now it's your turn to explain what the point is you're actually trying to make.
The problem with that is that OpenAI can only afford to pay for the compute because they are burning investor money (and so are most of OpenAI's biggest clients). They are losing billions. If they stop burning money, nobody else will be there to pay for that compute at OpenAI's cost.
Sure, somebody will probably be able to use these GPUs, they just won't be able to pay nearly as much for them as OpenAI does.
In reality, it's just nowhere near worth as much as OpenAI pays for it. Inflating the cost of compute is part of the problem caused by the circular financing, and if (or maybe when) OpenAI goes, the price of compute will go with them.