May. 6 at 11:57 PM
AI earnings are quietly shifting the cost structure of software. Across Q1, CEOs all pointed to the same pressure: inference is no longer R&D spend; it’s hitting COGS.
$META $SHOP $SPOT $PINS $ROKU all flagged rising compute intensity or LLM-driven costs in different ways.
This is the same pattern repeating: AI-native software is becoming a token reseller business—buy compute wholesale, sell workflows retail. The problem? The spread is compressing fast.
Tokens aren’t optional anymore, they’re the bill of goods sold.
High-level takeaway: vertical SaaS with proprietary data can pass-through pricing. Horizontal SaaS with generic workflows absorbs margin pressure.
This divergence is just getting started.
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