*Update*: Anthropic IPO filing approved — but the AI boom comes at a price

The Anthropic IPO filing is now public – what's new today is the broader picture behind it. While the company marches toward the stock market with a valuation of nearly one trillion dollars, CNBC reports that the AI boom has channeled more than 250 billion dollars into heavyweights like OpenAI and Anthropic – while simply steamrolling hundreds of startups founded before ChatGPT's launch in 2022. Many of these companies face a choice: radically pivot or die.

Cost pressure grows for users and companies

Meanwhile, cost pressure on end users is growing noticeably. El Espectador reports that prices are rising across all AI segments – AI agents, which consume significantly more computing power than simple chatbots, are cited as the main driver. This translates directly into subscription fees: The West Australian reports that more than 150,000 Australians now pay for AI services like ChatGPT or Claude – a massive increase compared to three years ago. Those who pay, pay more; those who don't pay, get less.

On the corporate side, a practical example shows how seriously cost pressure is being taken: An engineering team documents on Hacker News how it was able to reduce Spark computing costs by 44 percent using AI-powered monitoring – an indication that even AI-savvy teams must actively keep infrastructure spending under control.

The paradox of the AI boom

The paradox is obvious: the technology that is supposed to lower costs is simultaneously driving them up. Anthropic's IPO is the flagship of a boom whose fruits have so far concentrated at the top – among the major labs, the major investors. For everyone else – first-generation startups, developer teams with tight budgets, consumers with subscriptions – 2026 is the year the bill comes due.