In detail
- CEO Flo Crivello reports that AI costs for the 25-person team were "unsustainable" and exceeded personnel costs.
- Deepseek is hosted by a US company on US soil.
- Crivello signals willingness to return to Claude if Anthropic cuts prices—"a matter of survival for the business."
- Analysis shows affordable Chinese models like GLM-5.2 are competitive on price-performance ratio, even if they don't fully match Claude.
Why it matters
The switch demonstrates that cost efficiency is becoming the decisive criterion for startups and puts pressure on Anthropic to adjust pricing. It signals a market trend away from expensive US models toward cheaper alternatives.
For you Audit whether your current AI model costs are sustainable—switching to cheaper alternatives could deliver significant savings without materially compromising quality.