The Economics of Open-Weight Inference
- PublicationsHow open-weight demand can support the useful life of NVIDIA GPU familiesOrnn Data7 September 2026AbstractGPUs are commonly depreciated on the assumption that each new NVIDIA generation renders the previous one obsolete.
- In this paper, we provide a counter to this thesis by examining the effect of open-weight demand on the economic usefulness of older GPU families.
- Closed-model access runs through subscription allowances that the provider is able to reset, so the posted token rate card represents the marginal price of additional usage.
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- PublicationsHow open-weight demand can support the useful life of NVIDIA GPU familiesOrnn Data7 September 2026AbstractGPUs are commonly depreciated on the assumption that each new NVIDIA generation renders the previous one obsolete.
- In this paper, we provide a counter to this thesis by examining the effect of open-weight demand on the economic usefulness of older GPU families.
- Closed-model access runs through subscription allowances that the provider is able to reset, so the posted token rate card represents the marginal price of additional usage.
Sources: Ornn