Axios: AI Compute Costs Now Exceed Employee Salaries at Some Companies — Uber CTO Already Burned Full 2026 AI Budget

Axios·high signal

NVIDIA VP of Applied Deep Learning Bryan Catanzaro says 'the cost of compute is far beyond the costs of the employees' for his team. Uber's CTO has already blown through his full 2026 AI budget due to token costs, while worldwide IT spending is projected at $6.31T in 2026 (up 13.5% YoY) driven by AI infrastructure. The article signals a potential inflection where AI ROI pressure intensifies — companies must prove returns on AI spending to shareholders on quarterly earnings calls.