The grapes are sour because their moat is crumbling.
What was supposed to be a model, training, and data moat - is now reduced to operational cost, which they are not terribly efficient for.
OpenAI has been on a journey to burn as much $ as possible to get as far ahead on those three moats, to the point where decreasing TCO for them on inference was not even relevant - "who cares if you save me 20% of costs when I can raise on a 150b pre money value?".
Well, with their moats disappearing, they will have no choice but to compete on inference cost like everyone else.
What was supposed to be a model, training, and data moat - is now reduced to operational cost, which they are not terribly efficient for.
OpenAI has been on a journey to burn as much $ as possible to get as far ahead on those three moats, to the point where decreasing TCO for them on inference was not even relevant - "who cares if you save me 20% of costs when I can raise on a 150b pre money value?".
Well, with their moats disappearing, they will have no choice but to compete on inference cost like everyone else.