Big tech firms move to rein in runaway AI token bills as usage surges

Major technology companies are grappling with surging compute and token costs as AI agents drive heavier usage. Uber said in April it had exhausted its annual AI budget in four months, and one company reportedly spent $500m on AI tokens in a single month. Meta and Amazon have dropped internal AI-usage leaderboards and are shifting to measures such as cheaper model choices and token caps. Ramp estimates clients’ AI spending has risen 13-fold over the past year, with the top 1% of spenders averaging $7,450 per employee per month.