Recently an Nvidia executive Said That the cost of computing now exceeds the salaries of its employees. last week, Mercor CEO said The startup is spending more on tokens for internal agents than on headcount.
as enterprises Blow up their token budget, A big question is whether companies are really spending more on AI than humans?
According to, not at all yet latest research From the Ramp AI Index, which measures the rate of AI adoption among US businesses. The top 1% of companies – which Ramp describes as “AI-piled” – are spending $7,500 per employee per month. Whether you think that’s a lot or a little depends on your perspective, but it’s certainly not more than the average software engineer’s salary of about $16,000 per month.
And those are just the power users. The top 10% spend about $611 monthly per employee, and the average only spends $11.38, or about the cost of a seat on an enterprise plan.
Despite the pressure, AI spending is still growing, he said. Among AI-based companies, spending per employee increased by 14.1% last month. It is not yet clear whether this trend will continue or not. The top 1% of companies mix and match, choosing to bounce between multiple frontier models and platforms that give them access to cheaper open-source models.
