The Fix For AI's Spending Problem Is Not Good For OpenAI And Anthropic
Model routing is taking off, threatening OpenAI and Anthropic's premium-priced demand assumption.
“the era of picking one model is over”— Sam Altman
Enterprises are shifting from running everything through the most powerful model to 'model routing'—matching cheaper models to easy tasks—after AI bills spiked, with Sam Altman noting the first wave of customer cost complaints and OpenRouter seeing 5x volume growth in six months. This threatens OpenAI and Anthropic, whose valuations assume endless demand at premium prices, since routing sends boilerplate work to cheaper models. Cognition (maker of Devin) is leaning in with agent routing and an ROI 'productivity guarantee.'