“These models are built by two companies that are deeply unprofitable (Anthropic is on course to lose $2.7 billion this year), and that have pricing designed to get more customers rather than make any kind of profit.”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
OpenAI and Anthropic are deeply unprofitable, with pricing designed to win customers rather than profit; Anthropic is on course to lose $2.7 billion in 2024.
Assessment: Unresolved Evidence as of
Where and when Ed Zitron wrote it
Where's Your Ed At, The Subprime AI Crisis, paragraph 72.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence as of
- the cutoff for this assessment
- Assessment recorded
- assessment wyea-subprimeai-97a08e-a2
We recorded 50 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.
The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-28. The source may have been edited after 2024-09-16. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Observation
- Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
- “this year”
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Deadline state on 2026-10-29
- No horizon (the release’s reference date)
From the speaker
- two companies that are deeply unprofitable
- Anthropic is on course to lose $2.7 billion this year
- pricing designed to get more customers
- rather than make any kind of profit
Our interpretation
- The two companies are OpenAI and Anthropic.
- This year means calendar 2024.
- On course describes the financial outlook at publication, not a promise that the eventual audited result would equal exactly $2.7 billion.
- Deeply unprofitable ordinarily means substantial company-wide losses relative to revenue.
- The pricing clause asserts a growth-first pricing strategy. Losses alone cannot establish that intent or the absence of service-level profit.
- The financial figures are treated as press estimates, consistent with the surrounding attribution to The Information. No GAAP or IFRS basis is supplied.
Counts as supported if: Reliable contemporaneous reporting establishes substantial losses at both companies, an approximately $2.7 billion Anthropic loss outlook for 2024, and evidence that their pricing strategy prioritized customer acquisition over profit.
Counts as contradicted if: Comparable records establish profitability at either company, materially refute Anthropic's contemporaneous loss outlook, or directly refute the asserted pricing strategy.
Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.
Current assessment
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Unresolved
The record was checked, and the evidence available by the cutoff does not settle it.
Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.
- Evidence as of
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
A July 27, 2024 report said OpenAI could lose as much as $5 billion in 2024 and described Anthropic's expected spending as over $2.7 billion [e1]. A September 24, 2024 report described Anthropic's expected 2024 loss as over $2.7 billion [e2]. This reporting supports expectations of substantial losses, but does not establish Anthropic's specific loss outlook on a consistent accounting basis as of September 16, 2024 [e1] [e2]. Neither report establishes or directly refutes the asserted pricing strategy at either company, leaving the full claim unresolved [e1] [e2].
Limitations
- The sources are secondary reports of estimates, without underlying financial records or a consistent accounting definition [e1] [e2].
- The July report describes Anthropic spending; the September report describes losses and postdates the claim [e1] [e2].
- Neither report supplies direct evidence of pricing objectives or service-level profitability [e1] [e2].
Evidence (2 items)
Context only: THE DECODER,
$5 billion
Why it matters here: This supports the OpenAI loss component as a contemporaneous press estimate. It does not establish the combined two-company proposition, Anthropic's comparable net loss, or pricing intent.
- Where
- Opening paragraph
- Publisher
- THE DECODER
- Kind of source
- Secondary summary
- Measures
- OpenAI, Projected company-wide loss, detailed accounting definition unspecified, USD billions, estimate, 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31
- Describes events of
- Public from
Context only: THE DECODER,
Anthropic expects to lose over $2.7 billion this year.
Why it matters here: This later report is consistent with a large Anthropic loss expectation. It does not identify a comparable accounting basis or establish that this was the outlook on September 16.
- Publisher
- THE DECODER
- Kind of source
- Secondary summary
- Measures
- Anthropic, Projected company-wide loss, detailed accounting definition unspecified, USD billions, estimate, 2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31
- Describes events of
- Public from
What would settle it
Financial forecasts available by September 16, 2024 distinguishing spending, cash burn and company-wide losses, including the basis of Anthropic's approximately $2.7 billion outlook, plus contemporaneous company statements or documents establishing or refuting the asserted pricing strategy at both companies.
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Where's Your Ed At, The Subprime AI Crisis
These models are built by two companies that are deeply unprofitable (Anthropic is on course to lose $2.7 billion this year), and that have pricing designed to get more customers rather than make any kind of profit.
- Where
- paragraph 72
- Published
- 2024-09-16
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment wyea-subprimeai-97a08e-a2: Current. Outcome: Unresolved. Evidence as of 2026-10-28. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.
HeldBy this site
The final-text check failed: rationale_supported_by_evidence; overclaims: Company losses also do not prove that prices were designed to avoid any profit..
About assessment wyea-subprimeai-97a08e-a1, which was not published.