logoalt Hacker News

jialatsia • today at 1:15 PM • 13 replies • view on HN

Ant generates $2.08 in revenue for every $1 spent on compute which is up from just $0.40 in Q1 2025.the payback period for compute is just insane, likely less than a year!


Replies

skerit • today at 1:22 PM

I wonder how the "It's all heavily subsidized!" people are going to spin this.

➕ show 8 replies
gizmodo59 • today at 1:24 PM

my thesis is that it will go down and not up over time. The moat they had in coding which is by far the highest token consumption is not that huge compared to Nov-Feb period where token maxxing was prevalent and no other vendor's model was that good.

SyneRyder • today at 1:24 PM

Less than a year would also match what DeepSeek was reporting, where compute pays off in just 10 months. I think they also said they had an 80% margin on inference.

anilakar • today at 1:20 PM

When will generic AI compute capability trickle down to us plebeians?

➕ show 2 replies
xxpor • today at 1:33 PM

Seems like that would imply you should be getting people to adopt now now still even if it costs a stupid amount, if you think it's valuable, rather than limiting token budgets. It'll only get cheaper over time.

crostlybostly • today at 1:36 PM

Impressive, but probably based on depreciation servers over 5 years. But is that realistic? I wonder how many people are still using 5 year old servers in their AI training or inference.

_hmj • today at 1:28 PM

ANT stock valuations might be high at listing, but it will be a good stock to add on declines. Great numbers!

jbs789 • today at 1:25 PM

Does that include R&D?

Over time that margin persists only if they maintain their competitive edge, which is not free.

➕ show 2 replies
throwawayffffas • today at 1:26 PM

Just renting them out as hardware is close to 12 months.

WithinReason • today at 1:26 PM

Including training?

hit8run • today at 1:33 PM

That's their API cost price. No one will pay this on that scale? People are using tokens via their Max Plans?

➕ show 1 reply
Noaidi • today at 1:23 PM

Why are you ignoring the $80.7 Billion loss?

$72 billion of this $80.7 billion loss consists of non-cash accounting charges— related to convertible debt—triggered by a surge in the company’s valuation.

The hardware related liabilities are staggering.

AI psychosis is real.

➕ show 4 replies