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Jain: Standalone AI model business is not as lucrative as expected

Arvind Jain · ⁠Why OpenAI and Anthropic Won't Win the App Layer | Glean Founder · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jul 11, 2026 · at 16:04

Arvin Jain is the founder and CEO of Glean ($7.2B valuation). He discusses the economics of frontier AI model providers amidst open-source competition.

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“I think the model business, you know, on its own is, is actually probably not as lucrative as everybody believes, but these companies now have a lot more things.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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