Anthropic better get moving on its IPO. OpenAI apparently already missed its optimal window and postponed. Now even Anthropic's explosive growth could come under pressure as companies tighten AI spending and turn to cheaper Chinese alternatives.

AI startup Lindy is a case in point: CEO Flo Crivello ditched Claude entirely for Deepseek, hosted by a US company on US soil. The cost curve "crashed to the ground," saving millions, he told CNBC. AI costs for the 25-person startup had been "unsustainable," exceeding personnel costs. Crivello said he'd switch back if Anthropic cut prices: "It's a matter of survival for the business."

A recent analysis by Snowflake's CTO showed that affordable Chinese models like GLM-5.2 don't quite match Claude but are competitive and easily win on the price-performance ratio depending on the task. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently said that AI cost became a "huge issue" for companies with the recent switch to agentic systems burning through tokens.