> DeepSeek token prices are continuing to _increase_

One increase does not a trend make. And the current crop of models are now undercutting deepseek flash...

You can't possibly think that it's going to get cheaper and cheaper to pay for tokens though. Right? Have you seen what's happening with Codex/Claude subscriptions? Deepseek raising API prices.. We've been getting subsidized tokens for some time now and as the hardware costs skyrocket these labs/people with inference compute are going to continue to clamp down.

> You can't possibly think that it's going to get cheaper and cheaper to pay for tokens though. Right?

Absolutely I do. Each generation of open-weight models has come with significant efficiency improvements, and there are significant hardware gains on the horizon: both increasing competition from Chinese chip manufacturers, and new custom silicon from the established players. And unlike Anthropic and OpenAI, most of the pure inference providers aren't massively leveraged - the more hardware they can bring online, the cheaper they can serve tokens.

$40,000 GPU is like few pennies in sand. Only mildly hyperbolic. But a GPU fresh out of fab is $2000 after ASML, TSMC and inputs get their 50-75% margin, then somehow $40k laundered through US financialization / Nvidia margins. Commoditized GPUs shouldn't cost more than 1-2% current price once there's competition.

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Compelling argument from only msg on new account.

We’re getting subsidized training. The inference is not a loss leader. And since providers can run hardware at 100 percent 24/7 their per token cost is going to be far below mine, regardless of how long I’m willing to wait for a token to come out.