Development

Compute now costs labs more than salaries and marketing combined

development2026-02-05

Claim

Epoch AI found compute costs at top labs now exceed salaries and marketing combined, with OpenAI researchers struggling to get compute credits for non-LLM projects.

Reporting date: 2026-02-05 (not necessarily the event date)

Sources

Attribution and reporting linked by this record; links do not imply independent verification.

Welcome to February 5, 2026 (theinnermostloop.substack.com)

The input that used to dominate a research budget is now a rounding error against the one that replaced it.

Knowledge graphopen in browser →

Reported in

Welcome to February 5, 2026

Actor

Evidence for

Referenced by

Welcome to February 5, 2026

Cite or correct this record

Citation formatCitation text

Compute now costs labs more than salaries and marketing combined
Innermost Loop KB — secondary record
Reporting date: 2026-02-05
KB permalink: https://nicholsn.github.io/innermost-loop-kb/developments/2026-02-05-compute-exceeds-salaries-and-marketing
Claim: Epoch AI found compute costs at top labs now exceed salaries and marketing combined, with OpenAI researchers struggling to get compute credits for non-LLM projects.
Attributed sources:
- Welcome to February 5, 2026 — https://theinnermostloop.substack.com/p/welcome-to-february-5-2026
This citation does not imply independent verification of linked-source claims.

Suggest a correction — opens a GitHub draft for you to review and submit.