1
GLM 5.2 and the coming AI margin collapse
GLM 5.2 is the first open weights model I'd call a genuine competitor to Opus and GPT for agentic work - at ~15-20% of the price. Part one of why AI inference margins are about to collapse.
Martin Alderson
I write about the intersection of software engineering and economics, with a focus on the AI transformation. I've worked on dozens of enterprise software projects and enjoy the balance between commercial success and pragmatic technical excellence.
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Visit martinalderson.com → RSS feedOn Hacker News Aug 2025 – Jul 2026
AI & Machine Learning 10Tech Industry & Business 9Software Engineering 3
2
xAI is looking more like a datacentre REIT than a frontier lab
xAI is renting huge amounts of GPU capacity to Anthropic and Google. Financial engineering ahead of the SpaceX IPO, a real compute shortage, or a genuine datacentre advantage? Probably all three.
3
Are OpenAI and Anthropic losing money on inference?
Deconstructing the real costs of running AI inference at scale. My napkin math suggests the economics might be far more profitable than commonly claimed.
4
No, it doesn't cost Anthropic $5k per Claude Code user
The viral claim that Anthropic loses $5,000 per Claude Code subscriber doesn't survive basic scrutiny. Let's do the actual maths.
5
Has the cost of building software dropped 90%?
Agentic coding tools are dramatically reducing software development costs. Here's why 2026 is going to catch a lot of people off guard.
6
AI agents are starting to eat SaaS
Software ate the world. Agents are going to eat SaaS.
7
Two kinds of AI users are emerging
A bifurcation is happening in AI adoption - power users shipping products in days versus everyone else generating meeting agendas. Enterprise tool choices are accelerating the divide.
8
Are we repeating the telecoms crash with AI datacenters?
Looking at actual token demand growth, infrastructure utilization, and capacity constraints - the economics don't match the 2000s playbook like people assume
9
What happens when coding agents stop feeling like dialup?
From magical to frustrating in months. Why AI coding agents feel like dial-up internet and what ultra-fast inference could unlock for developer productivity.
10
Figma's woes compound with Claude Design
Figma's reliance on non-designer seats made it uniquely exposed to AI. Claude Design's launch deepens the problem.
11
Which programming languages are most token-efficient?
Comparing token efficiency across 19 popular programming languages using RosettaCode data - from Clojure to C, there's a 2.6x difference.