# How do AI companies make money?

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/q/how-do-ai-companies-make-money/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

[All questions](https://realalpha.app/q/)

Question

Of the 10 moments we cut that answer this, 6 say the model is changing, 3 say it’s a good business and one says margins are hard. Misha Laskin said on No Priors (Oct 9, 2026) that open-model businesses can earn through services and paid inference tools built around the weights. Misha Laskin said on Sources (Oct 5, 2026) that owning more of the stack can add margin, with provider potential depending on intelligence, compute, and enterprise trust.

## Where they stand

- A good business 3
  - Dylan Patel
  - Misha Laskin
  - Brad Gerstner
- The model is changing 6
  - Rory O'Driscoll
  - Misha Laskin ×3
  - Nilay Patel
  - Daron Acemoğlu
- Margins are hard 1
  - Dylan Patel

## The model is changing 6

1. 20VC · Oct 22, 2026 · 4 min
   **[Inference providers may capture spend beyond model makers](https://realalpha.app/s/inference-providers-may-capture-spend-beyond-model-makers/)**
   > “do I want to give money to Cloud Code and give them a 70% gross margin for this token?”
   [Rory O'Driscoll](https://realalpha.app/people/rory-odriscoll/) General Partner, Scale [33:03](https://realalpha.app/v/OJX2L21e4fA/?t=1983)
2. No Priors · Oct 9, 2026 · 3 min
   **[Enterprises rent intelligence first, then want to own it](https://realalpha.app/s/enterprises-rent-intelligence-first-then-want-to-own-it/)**
   > “I liken it to we start typically off renting our apartments, but then as you grow up, you want to own a house for various reasons, even if it's a bit of a headache.”
   [Misha Laskin](https://realalpha.app/builders/misha-laskin/) Co-Founder & CEO, ReflectionAI [23:29](https://realalpha.app/v/up4sG9RM20M/?t=1409)
3. Decoder · Oct 8, 2026 · 5 min
   **[Meta can fund free agents with ads while OpenAI cannot](https://realalpha.app/s/meta-can-fund-free-agents-with-ads-while-openai-cannot/)**
   > “I have a bribeable chief of staff. Like I have a corrupt butler. Is that what you want? That is a great term for it, a corrupt butler.”
   [Nilay Patel](https://realalpha.app/people/nilay-patel/) Editor-in-chief, The Verge [36:45](https://realalpha.app/v/HRbteJut-sA/?t=2205)
4. Silicon Valley Girl · Oct 6, 2026 · 3 min
   **[The money in AI is in data and applications, not models](https://realalpha.app/s/the-money-in-ai-is-in-data-and-applications-not-models/)**
   > “I really don't see how you're going to make trillions of dollars from foundation models because of potential bottlenecks, either in the development of the models or in their diffusion.”
   [Daron Acemoğlu](https://realalpha.app/people/daron-acemoglu/) Economist, MIT [40:42](https://realalpha.app/v/0lsasYuzhL4/?t=2442)
5. Sources · Oct 5, 2026 · 5 min
   **[Open models can drive demand for a full stack](https://realalpha.app/s/open-models-can-drive-demand-for-a-full-stack/)**
   > “open source technology is a demand driver for something. And an example is Kubernetes, demand driver for CPU clouds, effectively.”
   [Misha Laskin](https://realalpha.app/builders/misha-laskin/) CEO & Co-founder, Reflection [38:11](https://realalpha.app/v/BKnAeVej0dc/?t=2291)
6. Sources · Oct 5, 2026 · 6 min
   **[Data center owners need open models and a software partner](https://realalpha.app/s/data-center-owners-need-open-models-and-a-software-partner/)**
   > “by nature of you owning your own asset, you need an open model to serve on it”
   [Misha Laskin](https://realalpha.app/builders/misha-laskin/) CEO & Co-founder, Reflection [51:53](https://realalpha.app/v/BKnAeVej0dc/?t=3113)

## A good business 3

1. Big Technology Podcast · Oct 9, 2026 · 4 min
   **[Anthropic pairs high inference margins with low acquisition costs](https://realalpha.app/s/anthropic-pairs-high-inference-margins-with-low-acquisition/)**
   > “And Anthropic has near no customer acquisition cost, right? Now, obviously, they have a humongous R&D spend, but their R&D spend has grown slower than their revenue.”
   [Dylan Patel](https://realalpha.app/people/dylan-patel/) Founder & CEO, SemiAnalysis [30:33](https://realalpha.app/v/LwMtHI7BHWI/?t=1833)
2. Sources · Oct 5, 2026 · 4 min
   **[AI provider revenue depends on compute, intelligence and trust](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-provider-revenue-depends-on-compute-intelligence-and/)**
   > “It's intelligence density times the amount of compute that you have times the trust that you have with an enterprise”
   [Misha Laskin](https://realalpha.app/builders/misha-laskin/) CEO & Co-founder, Reflection [44:50](https://realalpha.app/v/BKnAeVej0dc/?t=2690)
3. BG2 · Jun 11, 2026 · 3 min
   **[Why $1.5T of AI CapEx can still pencil out against $300B of revenue](https://realalpha.app/s/why-1-5t-of-ai-capex-can-still-pencil-out-against-300b-of/)**
   > “we're spending $1.5 trillion of CapEx on $300 billion of inference revenue.”
   [Brad Gerstner](https://realalpha.app/people/brad-gerstner/) Founder & CEO, Altimeter Capital [1:04:47](https://realalpha.app/v/Tx9jT2c6e3U/?t=3887)

## Margins are hard 1

1. Big Technology Podcast · Oct 9, 2026 · 5 min
   **[Oracle's fixed-price deals limit its upside when GPU prices rise](https://realalpha.app/s/oracles-fixed-price-deals-limit-its-upside-when-gpu-prices/)**
   > “they signed them with a fixed margin, essentially. So now that the price of GPUs has gone up a lot for clouds”
   [Dylan Patel](https://realalpha.app/people/dylan-patel/) Founder & CEO, SemiAnalysis [47:26](https://realalpha.app/v/LwMtHI7BHWI/?t=2846)

Each moment is a few minutes of a long interview, cut by Real Alpha and filed under how it answers by a model that read its claim and quote. Open a moment for its full transcript. Last moment added Oct 23, 2026.