Ambati: Advanced AI models will become more expensive as compute demands increase
Vamshi Ambati · 94% CAGR: What the Inference Boom means for your AI costs | Vamshi Ambati · Jun 9, 2026 · at 13:07
Vamshi Ambati (Virama Ventures) discusses why advanced reasoning models consume significantly more tokens and compute rather than becoming cheaper.
0:00 / 0:08exact quote · 8.2s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I think the, they're gonna get more expensive as the models get better the compute needs are gonna, you know, increase, and then you're gonna get better.”
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 →
More from Vamshi Ambati
Ambati: AI foundation models will capture more than 10% of software
“We are starting to see more evidence that models are going to own that more than the 10%, ah, you know, whether it's the new plugins that, ah, you know, Claude has released that shook up the whole SecOps market.”
Ambati: Base token prices will fall while latest frontier models get pricier
“So there is a time in the next year and two where we'll start to see these directionally, yes all the token prices are going down. But as the models are maturing, we are starting to see that, you know, the opposite effect as well, where, you know, the cost is …”
Ambati: AI inference market will reach $1.3T-$1.4T by 2030
“The inference market is one of the largest or so the fastest growing CAGR. So what we are seeing is about 94% CAGR. And then, you know, today, I think around 20, 26, we are looking at an eighty billion dollar sort of market. But soon by 2030 it's gonna be a 1.…”
Ambati: Enterprise AI deals are won on trust, not model accuracy
“I would say enterprises don't optimize for accuracy of a model, right? So they're more so optimizing for reliability and trust. So it's very it's very, I think, in today's age with this new, ah, level of capability that the models have, getting the accuracy ri…”
Ambati: Trust-focused AI startups will beat incumbent software behemoths
“The advantage is towards startups who get this right. Because I can't imagine an existing behemoth going back and saying, okay, now I already have your trust in you know, reliability and everything. I can take care of that, but I'm going to reinvent and now be…”