AI Token Price Collapse Threatens Pricing Power of OpenAI, Anthropic Ahead of IPOs

A fundamental challenge to the artificial intelligence boom is materializing: the price of computational power itself is collapsing, even as demand continues to rise. The LLM Token Expenditure Index fell to $0.97 per million tokens this month, breaching the $1 threshold for the first time and marking a 54% decline from its peak of $2.07 in late May. Meanwhile, Ramp's token price index has dropped 48% from a late-February high of $1.22 per million tokens, according to market data. The divergence between soaring usage and stagnating spending creates a critical vulnerability for the AI industry just as leading companies prepare for public markets.