Meta's chief AI scientist says OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI are all losing money while investors subsidize usage — but his own firm stands to benefit from a shift away from large language models.
Yann LeCun, founder of AMI Labs and chief AI scientist at Meta, warned that AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic risk a “big bubble explosion” if they cannot cut operating costs or raise prices, he told CNBC. [1]
LeCun said all of these companies are currently losing money, with investors effectively subsidizing the cost of AI usage for end users. [1] His concern echoes remarks from OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who recently called AI costs for businesses a “huge issue.” [1]
LeCun also singled out Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI, calling it “a kind of failure,” citing the departure of its founding team and what he described as Musk’s difficulty recruiting top talent. [1] He told CNBC he does not expect xAI to compete with OpenAI or Anthropic. [1] LeCun and Musk have a long history of public disagreements, largely rooted in LeCun’s rejection of Musk’s political views. [1]
LeCun’s warnings carry a notable conflict of interest: rather than backing the large language models (LLMs) — AI systems trained on vast text datasets — that underpin OpenAI and Anthropic’s products, he is advocating for “world models,” which he describes as systems that build an understanding of the real world. [1] AMI Labs raised one billion dollars to pursue that research direction in March. [1] A collapse in LLM investment could redirect funding toward his approach, though it could equally cool the broader AI market. [1]
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