But for advocates of more stringent antitrust enforcement, the steep barrier is a warning sign that tech giants could leverage their vast resources to box out emerging rivals.

Matt Stoller, director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project anti-monopoly group, called the cost issue one of the industry “choke points” he is tracking amid the AI boom.

“Access to capital … is always a barrier to entry, or can be a barrier to entry. … If you need a billion dollars to play, there are only a certain number of firms that have access,” said Stoller, whose group is funded by philanthropic groups including the Omidyar Network.

While the companies betting hard on AI rarely discuss the cost of running large language models — the AI systems that power tools like Google’s Bard and OpenAI’s ChatGPT — experts told Will the issue stands as a major obstacle to the tech industry’s AI ambitions.

And it’s prompting trade-offs for companies, who at times have to choose between growing their user bases and potentially taking on added losses, and cutting bait from the industry-wide race.

“Without enforcement, I think we … will absolutely have more consolidation,” Stoller said.

Antitrust advocates for years have sounded the alarm about the tech giants being able to overcome competitors by offering free products even while losing money, locking out potential rivals who may not be able to stomach the short-term blows.