Cheap, powerful AI models are increasing usage, a bullish sign for the AI boom

AxiosSeptember 22, 2026en

AI companies have competed on having the best and often most dangerous models for years. Now, they're pivoting to a new focus: cost. Why it matters: The biggest risk to the AI boom is demand, and recent innovations to make models cheaper while maintaining powerful levels of intelligence have offered a bullish signal. As the prices of top models from OpenAI, Anthropic and others come down, usage is increasing dramatically, a trend that points to the kind of demand that will be necessary to justify trillions of dollars in spending. State of play: It's modelpalooza in the AI world this week, with OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceX and some Chinese model providers all offering new releases. Most of them

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• OpenAI
• Anthropic