AI can cost more than human workers now

IT budgets are getting blown out as some companies increasingly spend more on AI than on employees' salaries. "For my team, the cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees," said Bryan Catanzaro, vice president of applied deep learning at Nvidia. Uber's chief technology officer already blew through his full 2026 AI budget due to token costs, according to The Information. Amos Bar-Joseph, CEO of Swan AI, bragged about his Anthropic bill in a viral LinkedIn post, saying "We're building the first autonomous business - scaling with intelligence, not headcount." Worldwide IT spending is expected to reach $6.31 trillion in 2026, up 13.5 percent from 2025, according to Gartner. That increase is being driven by "sustained momentum" across AI infrastructure, software and cloud services, which includes everything from the AI buildout to the cost of AI subscriptions.