OpenAI and Anthropic are heading for a price war, but profitability remains in doubt
Ahead of the upcoming IPOs, Altman is said to have decided to cut token prices in order to compete with the rival company
On the one hand, Wall Street is eagerly awaiting two imminent IPOs. On the other, a price war is raging, the result of competition that could, however, have a significant impact on revenues. The rivalry between OpenAI and Anthropic is entering a new phase. After years of technological competition, the two companies are now exploring new territory. Certainly, there are the listings, with both companies having already filed their documents for their respective fundraising rounds (Anthropic filed its IPO documentation confidentially on 1 June, whilst OpenAI followed suit a few days later). But there is also a heated debate over pricing if it is true, as the Wall Street Journal reports, that OpenAI is considering significant price cuts for its models to prepare for a potential price war with Anthropic.
Altman and his team are reportedly considering the possibility of drastically reducing ChatGPT’s rates. This does not mean that consumer subscription prices will be cut, but rather those for tokens – that is, those in the (far more profitable and strategic) API market. In simpler terms: the prices of services aimed at developers, start-ups and large companies.
The aim seems clear: to win over enterprise customers, particularly those using AI models for software development, automation and chatbots. This is a sector in which Anthropic is growing very rapidly, thanks to Claude Code, which is considered one of the strongest products for AI-assisted programming. Hence Altman’s decision to compete more aggressively.
It must be said, however, that a price war could further squeeze the margins of both companies, which are already spending huge sums on infrastructure and computing power. The operating costs for the AI services they offer are very high, between the GPUs in use and the energy consumed. For this reason, acquiring new customers by cutting prices might not be without its costs.
The news, however, comes as both companies prepare to go public, with two IPOs that could see both valued as trillion-dollar companies. The rush to list hides (not entirely) the desire to secure a dominant position in the generative AI sector, but also to set the parameters by which the market will assess an industry still seeking a stable economic equilibrium.
