Why Memory Bandwidth Is the New Constraint

The second-order effects of cheaper tokens are where the real value migrates. As raw inference approaches commodity pricing, the durable businesses are the ones that own distribution, proprietary data, or an integrated workflow — not the ones reselling a thin wrapper over an API that anyone can call.

The interesting tell in a model launch is what the provider chooses not to charge for. Free tiers, aggressive rate limits, and bundled inference are competitive weapons aimed at locking in developers before switching costs exist. The pricing is a strategy document, and the giveaways say more about the roadmap than the benchmarks do.

Power, not silicon, is emerging as the binding constraint on datacenter expansion. Grid interconnection queues stretch years out in the key regions, and the operators who locked in generation capacity early now hold a structural advantage that will show up in gross margins long before it shows up in the narrative.