Balaban: Claims that AI GPUs have a five-year lifespan are wrong
Stephen Balaban · The GPU Myth: State of AI Compute 2026 | Stephen Balaban · Jun 18, 2026 · at 42:14
Stephen Balaban is co-founder and CTO of Lambda. He pushes back against critics who argue that AI GPUs rapidly become obsolete and must be discarded within three to five years.
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“The usable life is longer than the accounting depreciation schedule. And what really matters is the economic usable life. And so what we're starting to see is that like the people who are the naysayers, oh, this is going to be, you're going to throw these GPUs out in five years are completely wrong. They're completely wrong. And they've been wrong the entire time.”
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